After another long four year wait, the World Cup is underway with 32 teams vying to bring home some hardware to their respective countries. Besides the Olympics, the World Cup is, without a doubt, the biggest sporting event in the world. Although the United States shockingly failed to qualify, there are still reasons to plop yourself on the couch to watch the world’s greatest tournament.
Iceland enters as a Cinderella after qualifying as the smallest nation by population to ever make the World Cup. Two of the greatest players of all-time in Messi and Ronaldo are still searching for their first title. But since it's never just about the game itself, we're here to offer up our sartorial critique and rank the best uniforms—aka kits in the world of soccer.
Nike and Adidas dominated the field, sponsoring most of the teams in the tournament. Adidas took the route of issuing retro kits for most of it powerhouses squads, including the past two World Cup winners in Spain and Germany. In addition to its popular and traditional sponsors like Brazil, France and Portugal, Nike took everyone’s breath away with their design of Nigeria’s kits. The 1994 Nigerian tribute kits instantly became the hottest World Cup swag on the market, selling out worldwide in 15 minutes.
While there are plenty of stylish kits, there are also plenty of flops. With that being said, here the best kits in the 2018 World Cup ranked from No. 32 to 1.
30. Saudi Arabia
29. Costa Rica
🇵🇦 The shirt that you will keep forever.
Presenting the New Balance @fepafut Home Jersey. #SomosLaSele #NBFootball pic.twitter.com/eUhpKuDqec
— New Balance Football (@NBFootball) April 6, 2018
Didn’t we just see these? Panama gets a small pass because this is its first time the small Central American country is World Cup bound but New Balance takes the L here for copy and pasting.
28. Tunisia
27. Iran
26. Morocco
25. Serbia
24. Switzerland
23. Poland
22. Denmark
21. Egypt
20. Sweden
19. South Korea
18. Australia
17. Uruguay
Des maillots, « stylisés et contemporains » selon le directeur de création de Puma.
👉🏿https://t.co/xDN2EjqSSG pic.twitter.com/9lvp5vwtJk
— Senegal Football🇸🇳 (@SenegalFootball) March 19, 2018
The color scheme and design of the shirt is average but that design of lion’s face (because the lion is the team's mascot) in the middle of the jersey is dope. That's how it separates itself from the ordinary kits. Also appropriate that Puma is the sponsor.
16. England
It’s a classic and traditional look for England, but why are its training kits better than its game kits? The training kits are top 10 worthy. Take a look for yourselves:
This training kit has been sold out for like forever... And you can see why. @nikestore @England will I ever get a chance to purchase this top? Thanks 😁 pic.twitter.com/sOpbShdcO3
— Steven Jones (@S_Jones_91) June 9, 2018