Football and Fashion
Euros Fit-Check

Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel celebrates after winning the final against Germany at the 1992 European Football Championships
Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel celebrates after winning the final against Germany at the 1992 European Football Championships | © picture alliance / Laci Perenyi | Laci Perenyi

Soccer and fashion: there is no other match as unpredictable as this one. At times a bad pass, at others a volley into the top corner. We have looked back at some of the highlights in the history of the European Championship and tried to find the right words. 

Van Basten, Gullit, Koeman: The three players of the Dutch national team in the final match against the Soviet Union during the 1988 European Championship in Germany.

Among legends: Van Basten, Gullit, Koeman | © picture alliance / Laci Perenyi | Laci Perenyi


Sometimes the present (Berlin) is best explained by the past (Dutch players at the 1988 European Championship): Three friends in Berlin leaving the club on an ordinary Sunday afternoon informing their buddy that they intend to round off the event with a final keta line - tot ziens!



 
English fans in the Rheinenergiestadion at the 1988 European Championship match between England and the Netherlands

English fans in the Rheinenergiestadion at the 1988 European Championship match between England and the Netherlands | © picture alliance / SZ Photo | Horstmüller


To this day, the location and circumstances of this picture remain unclear: are these two gentlemen just British tourists on a resort vacation who, having barely arrived on the airfield of the Aeropuerto de Gran Canaria, are already getting into the right mood and eagerly waiting for the terminal bus? Or are these rather two disappointed fans of the Three Lions who witnessed England's 3:1 defeat against the Netherlands in the Müngersdorfer Stadium at the 1988 European Championship in Germany?



 
Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel celebrates after winning the final against Germany at the 1992 European Football Championships

Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel celebrates after winning the final against Germany at the 1992 European Football Championships | © picture alliance / Laci Perenyi | Laci Perenyi


The fashion of the 1990s was playful - that's for sure. Few people know, however, that at the time, the design of football shirts was inspired by board games. Here we see Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel contorting himself for a sophisticated Twister position. Some, however, recognize it as a celebratory pose for the Danish national team's surprising victory at the 1992 European Championship.



 
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greets the German soccer team before the start of the European Football Championship final at Wembley Stadium in London

Queen Elizabeth II greets the players of the German national team before the 1996 European Championship final | © picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS | MICHAEL PROBST

Style icons among themselves: German national goalkeeper Andreas Köpke deliberately chose a cyan-coloured dress for his meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at the EURO 1996, which harmonized with the monarch's hat in Veronese green. Meanwhile, world footballer Jürgen Klinsmann translates the conversation into the lingua franca of the international fashion world: Swabian.


 
Former Greece national team coach Otto Rehagel adjusts his royal blue training jacket.

The former Greek national team coach “King” Otto Rehagel | © picture alliance / dpa | Brian Stewart


Royal blue shell suit: “King Otto” Rehhagel surprisingly won the EURO 2004 title for Greece. In return, the man who was rumored to have been born in a tracksuit was inducted into the sporting Olympics in Hellas as Rehakles I.



 
A fan of the Icelandic national team with a Viking hat

A fan of the Icelandic national team at the 2016 European Championships | © picture alliance / dpa | Georgi Licovski


Iceland has roughly the same population as Bielefeld, but far more interesting headgear than East Westphalia. Consequently, the island nation played successfully at the EURO 2016, while Arminia Bielefeld recently managed to avoid relegation to the Regionalliga by the skin of its teeth.

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