In celebration of their Champions League success from earlier this year, Chelsea have unveiled a special limited edition shirt called ‘Forty Two’, so named in homage to the single goal that won the final, scored by Kai Havertz in the 42nd minute.
On 29 May 2021 Manchester City, champions of England, went into the Champions League final with the aim of winning the competition and thereby achieving something they had never done before. Just one thing stood in their way: Chelsea FC. Step forward Kai Havertz in the 42nd minute, and the rest is history. It was the Blues who lifted the trophy on that night, and now the club continue the celebrations by releasing a special edition shirt, limited to 420 pieces, all individually numbered.
In collaboration with art-inspired brand Dodici Otto, the handcrafted shirts give fans the opportunity to honour that magical night in Porto. The design takes the current 21/22 home shirt that then features key moments from the game digitally transformed into illustrations that have been hand printed onto the shirt. These moments include Havertz’s iconic knee-slide celebration, N’Golo Kante’s man-of-the-match performance, Thomas Tuchel’s post-game reaction, the starting line-up and a nod towards the club being twice Champions League winners.
Alongside these moments, the iconic club line ‘The Pride of London’ has also been printed on the shirt as well as ‘The Champions of Europe’, a line fans around the world have been singing ever since the triumph.
Artist Jordan founded Dodici Otto at the age of 19 in the summer of 2017 when he couldn’t find a football shirt no one else had, so he decided to create his own. The concept of implementing his own designs onto shirts was developed just before the Euros in 2020 and now he has brought this to the 2021/22 Chelsea home shirt to celebrate the team’s 2021 UCL victory. Each shirt comes in a bespoke gifting box signed by Jordan.
The Chelsea 'Forty Two' shirt is sold out online but is still available from the Stamford Bridge Megastore.
