The worldwide buzz around household gaming consoles in the mid-to-late ’90s coincided with the heavy commercialisation of football. Tech companies sought to jump on the wave of sponsorships making its way through the sport at the time, which led to the creation of some truly iconic shirts. Below we list some of the best video game sponsors in football.
- Video game sponsors in football have been a mainstay since consoles first appeared on the shelves
- This long-standing relationship has given way to some highly collectable strips
Top 10 Video Game Sponsors in Football
10. Lazio – PES 2009
We did some digging to see whether you can actually buy this first shirt, but it appears to be the stuff of legend.
In 2009, Lazio secured a deal with Konami to wear a one-off shirt in gameweek 15 of the Serie A season against Inter Milan.
Konami’s then-latest instalment of Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) had just been released, which is of course very fitting given it is a football video game, and the title’s logo was written across the club’s famous sky blue shirts for one night only.
One of only a select few shirts to have an actual game title on the front, this is firmly among the holy grail of collector’s items.
9. Auxerre – Playstation 2
Back when current Ligue 2 side Auxerre were still battling it out at the summit of the French top-flight, the club signed a deal with Sony to have their latest console – the PlayStation 2 – emblazoned on their shirts.
As history would show, the second iteration of the PlayStation has grown to become the best selling console of all-time, which in turn has made the Auxerre kits between 2001 and 2005 highly desirable.
However, that isn’t solely down to the sponsorship. Household names such as Djirbril Cisse, Philippe Mexes, Abou Diaby and Bacary Sagna all donned the iconic white and blue during a hugely successful spell for the club, in which they claimed to Coupe de France titles and competed in the Champions League.
8. PSG – Commodore
Despite drowning in a sea of competition with Nintendo and SEGA upon its release of the C64GS in 1990, Commodore still managed to find a place on one of French football’s more garish shirts.
Paris Saint-Germain have an illustrious lookbook of kits, particularly from the late ’90s and early 2000s when the likes of Ronaldinho and Mikel Arteta were cult heroes at an underachieving club.
However, these particular strips worn in the early 90s had two sponsors – both on the front – which for some strange reason actually works.
The blown up logos of Commodore and Muller, coupled with the bright geometric patterns make for a truly retro look, and one that is inextricably linked with club legends David Ginola and George Weah, who were part of the Coupe De France-winning campaign in 1992/93.
Such is the popularity of the shirts from this short-lived era, the Parisians re-released a trio of ‘oversized’ strips in January of last year.
7. Seattle Sounders – XBOX
Seattle Sounders’ long-standing partnership with Microsoft came to an end in 2019 after 10 seasons, but the MLS outfit gave the football world some of the coldest kits ever seen.
The club’s lime green strip could not have been more suited to Microsoft’s XBOX console theme, which bears the same colourway.
One strip in particular – the black third shirt with lime green accents from 2015 – looks like an XBOX console has been re-fashioned into a football kit.
In October of that year, they also took to the field against LA Galaxy in a special edition ‘Halo 5’ strip, marking the first time a kit had been altered mid-season in MLS.
6. Atletico Madrid – Tamagotchi
Atletico Madrid and Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai joined forces for one season only in 1996/97, and this next kit is virtually impossible to find on the retro market.
For nearly the entirety of that year the Spaniards donned Bandai’s logos on their shirts, but for the last two games of the La Liga season, the company’s latest product – the Tamagotchi – was placed front and centre.
The handheld digital pet would of course go on to sweep across Europe and the United States in a wild craze throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s, making this scarce Atleti shirt one of the rarest video game sponsors.
5. Lyon – Atari
After undergoing a second brand overhaul, one of the original purveyors of video game consoles Atari managed to make their way onto the front of Lyon’s shirts, who at the time had just finished as Ligue 1 runners-up.
The Atari logo sparks so much nostalgia, and twinned with the retro Lyon shirts of that 2001/02 season where Brazilian wizard Juninho was thundering free-kicks in from 40 yards – yes please.
Good luck getting your hands on one of these however. Not only do they now sell for an extortionate amount, but they were only worn by the club when competing on the continent that season. Domestically, the switched between Continental and Renault sponsorships, but in Europe they donned Atari.
Despite failing to make it out the group in the Champions League, they would go on to win Ligue 1 that year.
4. Sevilla – Super Nintendo
The simple ‘Super Nintendo’ block letters look so clean on the 1992/93 Sevilla kit – excuse me while I spend an unspeakable amount adding it to the collection.
The Spanish club’s hopes of ending a half-century long wait for a second league title were lifted by the arrival of a then 31-year-old Diego Maradona, in what would be his last season in Europe.
In what has since proven to be a forgotten chapter among an enduring legacy, the Argentine returned from a 15-month ban after testing positive for cocaine.
The club would eventually finish in seventh and fail to secure European football, with Maradona’s career in southern Spain nothing more than a fleeting moment in time.
However, we can’t help but admire archive of photos picturing a now-disgraced Maradona strutting about with ultra machismo and Super Nintendo written across his chest.
What a pairing.
3. Sampdoria/Arsenal/St Etienne/Deportivo – Dreamcast
We have already waxed lyrical about Arsenal’s iconic partnership with SEGA in our top 10 iconic Premier League sponsors, but it is worth mentioning the company’s venture into football wasn’t limited to the Gunners.
The Arsenal SEGA/Dreamcast era was made memorable by league and cup triumphs, while the baggy 90’s fits hanging on the shoulders of Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira conjures up memories of a lost era.
However, the Japanese console manufacturer were eager to push their new console – the Dreamcast – into the European market with full force, and what better vessel to advertise than a football shit.
St Ettienne in France, Deportivo La Coruña in Spain and Sampdoria in Italy; all these teams agreed to be have the newly-released console on the front of their shirts, although it appeared to have little effect on sales with SEGA allegedly yielding a net loss of $500 million by 2001, amid the release of Sony’s hugely popular PlayStation 2.
2. Wimbledon – Football Manager
Wimbledon’s relationship with Sports Interactive is one of the longest running agreements in sport, having been commercial partners since the club’s formation 21 years ago.
The Dons’ own rise through the divisions makes for an archetypal Football Manager journey, which is fitting given Sports Interactive’s main title is the hugely popular management simulation game.
It sneaks in at number two by virtue of its cult following among the footballing community, but also given how well the nature of the game ties in with Wimbledon’s story, since the club was reformed.
Watford and Hashtag United have also had the game emblazoned on their shirts, although only for a season each.
1. Fiorentina – Nintendo
We must admit we have given unfair treatment to SEGA/Dreamcast by grouping them in one section, given Nintendo appear twice on this list. However, Fiorentina’s kits during their two-year deal with Nintendo were breathtaking.
The Florentines have produced some of football’s more beautiful kits down the years, with the distinctive violet club colours leaning itself to some striking designs.
The ‘7UP’ kit from the 1992/93 season certainly gives our number one pick a run for its money, but in terms of video game sponsors the shirts from the late ’90s are a level above anything.
The club didn’t even need to win anything across those two years with Nintendo for the kit to go down in football folklore – it speaks for itself.
Of course, footballing royalty in Rui Costa and Gabriel Batistuta went some way to boosting its value, but shirts from that era are more than likely among the first to be added to a retro collector’s rotation.
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