 This royal blue shirt, probably made by
Umbro, was worn on only one occasion by the full international team, in
faraway Peru. It was accompanied by white shorts and socks. The socks, with a
red and a blue hoop around the middle, appeared again with the white shirt
over the following two years, but the blue shirt, worn in a crushing 4-1
defeat to the Peruvians, was never seen again. Indeed, the colour seemed
jinxed as England had worn blue in the ill-fated 1950 World Cup match against
the USA, also played in South America. Only England's goalkeepers have been
allowed to wear this shade of blue since. This shirt, with yellow numbers on
the back, had been worn by the Under-23s in 1957 and the photograph here is
more reflective of that shirt, for the one worn in Peru also included a small
blue 'v', a crescent containing their opponents' name in blue capitals (PERU)
and the year (1959) in red, all underneath the Three Lions with a white
background, as part of the same embroidered emblem.
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