[Editor’s Note: Since I’m on the road, our own Jamie Rathjen has stepped up with an article on Werder Bremen, a a German professional soccer club founded way back February 1899. Enjoy! — PH]
German men’s soccer Bundesliga club Werder Bremen is planning an testimonial for retired Brazilian midfielder Diego on March 22, during the next men’s international break. On Wednesday, they revealed the shirt to be worn for it: a recreation of the green-and-white halved first shirt worn in 2006-07, Diego’s first season with the club.
The big differences from the original (shown below) are that it’s from a different manufacturer, Hummel instead of Kappa, and that the crest is centered instead of in the normal position on the upper left front.
Werder Bremen 2006/07 Home DIEGO. Bremen’s joint top scorer with Klose, DFB Pokal winners, 3rd in Bundesliga. The start of Diego’s prominence in bundesliga, he was on absolute fire over the next few seasons with Bremen.
byu/thataussiedood inKitSwap
The shirt uses something like the font as used then, although you can see all of the back’s text is different, and lists Diego’s achievements with the club where the crest would usually go.
It may seem odd to be honoring someone who only played at the club for three seasons, won one trophy in 2009’s men’s German Cup, and had more stops after that before retiring in 2022. But Diego did win or finish runner-up in a number of individual accolades in those years, including winning the men’s Bundesliga player of the month award a record five times before it was discontinued in 2010 and finishing in the top two of several player-of-the-season awards.
Additionally, a testimonial to honor a player is much more common in the UK, where the standard length of service for receiving one is 10 years with one club. That’s not a milestone that is achieved often anymore. Through the mid-20th century, the honored player would benefit by receiving the proceeds of the match in an era where wages were much lower, while now at high-profile matches proceeds are usually donated to charity. There is precedent for testimonials of some form in Germany but primarily for retiring prominent players from either national team.
Read more from Werder here.
Menthols