The coolest World Cup kits

1 URUGUAY 1930

Argentina sported a superlative early edition of their classic stripes, but somehow the host nation and winners managed to go one better in the sartorial stakes: La Celeste (meaning sky blue) have never looked more, er, celestial.

2 SOVIET UNION 1966

Not simply England’s high watermark, but also the Soviet Union/russia’s only semi-final. The stark brutalism of their Cccp-emblazoned jerseys made them look menacing and majestic.

3 ZAIRE 1974

The Leopards are remembered for the wrong reasons in West Germany – primarily Joseph Mwepu Ilunga’s madcap free-kick behaviour – but their strip was a knockout: an Adidas classic with a huge wildcat plastered on the front. Meow.

4 PERU 1978

We can’t quite work out why Los Incas’ shirt is the greatest of all time – surely sashes are for beauty pageants and Orange Lodge members? – but it just is. The 1978 model, with an absolutely enormous badge, is the daddy of the lot.

5 BELGIUM 1982

Picking a best ’80s World Cup kit is impossible given the glorious competition (Spain, Holland, East and West Germany, Italy, England and even Canada ’86 leap to mind). However, the Red Devils’ sublime shirt-into-shorts-stripes takes the crown.

6 WEST GERMANY 1990

It was worn by some of the Germans’ greatest operatives – Rudi Voller, Jurgen Klinsmann and future FFT columnist Lothar Matthaus – and is still enough to induce nausea in a number of England supporters. But its iconic graph-like stripes remain a Teutonic masterpiece.

7 CROATIA 1998

Some see it as a catastrophe that should have been strangled at birth. But there’s no doubt the wavy chessboard inspired by the national flag – best donned by goal automaton Davor Suker and a terrifying-looking Slaven Bilic as Croatia finished third in France – was deeply memorable.