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shirt numbers

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Introduction
Germany 1996
Willem II 2002
Real Madrid 2003
AC Milan 2004
Chelsea 2004
Roda JC 2004
FC Utrecht 2004
Ajax 2004
Cameroon 2004
Italy 2004
Sporting 2004
Bayern München 2005
Schalke 04
Real Madrid 2005
FC Twente 2005
NAC/Vitesse 2005
Italy 2006
Netherlands 2006
Sevilla 2006

The year I got interested in shirt numbers was 1996. During the European Championship Football in England, the German team showed up with exceptional shirt numbers. They were a revelation among the many angular and extra bold numbers on the shirts of the other teams. It was difficult to figure out which typeface was used in this case. Finally, in February 2004, when I was writing a booklet about shirt numbers and studying photographs from the 1996 tournament, I once more nosed through the Font Book and there it was: Footlight. This typeface by the Malaysian designer Ong Chong Wah was published in 1986. It has a very personal character thanks to the firm serifs and the diagonal drawing axe (watch the zero!). The 6 —and 9— has a small 'eye'. For me these shirt numbers were a real eye opener. They made me aware that shirt numbers are an important element that determines the appearance of a team. And I observed that the legibility of these numbers on the tv screen was excellent. I don't know who decided to use these idiosyncratic figures on the German shirts, but it must have been someone with an open mind and a typographic eye.

footlight

Figures from Footlight, the typeface used by the German Football team in 1996.

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