Iconic kits: Benfica’s two-strip 1989/90 season | OneFootball

Benfica 1989/90

During the 1960s, SL Benfica were the greatest football club in Europe, period. The Eagles played a total of five European Cup finals and won back-to-back trophies in 1961 and 1962. They had the best player in Europe, who ranked only below Pelé worldwide.

Then, as the decade faded away, so did their international glory. But not for good. After a poor decade on the continental stage, Benfica came back closer to its former self when Sven-Göran Eriksson was hired from IFK Gothenburg. In his first campaign, he took the Eagles to a UEFA Cup final and laid the foundations for two iconic European Cup runs at the end of the decade.

He coached the side that reached the 1989/90 final, the last time Benfica was close to what they had once been. The shirt of that campaign ranks as highly as any other in the heart and soul of the Benfica supporters to this day. Even if, in the end, it didn’t get the chance to play in the final day of the season, a day when the Guttmann curse began to kick home.

Beautiful simplicity

It was red. It has three white stripes on it. And a trefoil. It could not get better than that.

By 1990, Benfica ended, briefly, their partnership with Adidas, their supplier since the beginning of the decade. For seven years, they sported Hummel first and then Olympic at a time when the values of old started to dismantle, little by little. It bears no surprise that for many Benfiquistas, that last Adidas shirt meant so much.

Championship-winning coach Toni steps down to make way for Eriksson

So did that iconic campaign. Benfica had just rehired Eriksson back after his spell in Italian football since 1984, when he had first left the club for AS Roma. A spell in the Italian capital and then with Fiorentina made a name for himself in the ever-demanding Serie A, but it brought him no trophies nor the European recognition he got at da Luz. Benfica had just become league champions under Toni, his faithful deputy, who took over in 1987, guided the side to a European Cup final, lost on penalties against PSV, before clinching back the title in the following campaign. His love for the club and friendship with Eriksson were the only things that made him give up his position as head coach so easily to rejoin the coaching staff, a unique case of devotion in football history.

Erikson had left Benfica dominating Portuguese football in 1984 but returned to a country where Porto had got the better of them for most of the remaining of the decade, a period that included their first European Cup win, besides other international trophies such as the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental trophy, silverware that had eluded Benfica’s trophy cabinet.

Last hurrah from Adidas

There was much expectation surrounding what a championship-winning side could do under the Swede, and despite losing the likes of Shéu and Mozer, two key figures in the dressing room, Eriksson persuaded the club to sign Aldair and Jonas Thern. Porto under Artur Jorge, who had also returned to Portugal after a short spell in France in the middle of the previous campaign, was a formidable opponent, and face-to-face would be two of the most iconic football shirts in Portuguese league history.

Adidas would supply the kits for the last time for almost a decade. The German company, which had also worked with Porto since the early eighties, provided their typical iconic template with the three white stripes and white trefoil on a clean red shirt, away from the flashier 1987 model. It had very few differences to the ones used in the previous two campaigns, with only the white V-neck to include a new collar. Also, white was the logo of the club’s main sponsor, Fnac, not to be confused with the famous French retailer store group. Fnac had replaced Shell in 1987/88 and became extremely popular alongside supporters, even if they also eventually sponsored their local rivals, Sporting as well.

Benfica’s Adidas kit used in the 1989/90 season [image: www.footballkitarchive.com]

The typical white shorts with red stripes on the side were followed by the customary red socks with the three stripes on them. They would also, occasionally, wear red shorts or white socks, depending on the opponent. The away kit followed the same pattern but in reverse. An all-white template, with a white shirt and the Fnac sponsor in black and the three stripes and V-neck in red, with white shorts and socks. It couldn’t get more traditional than that. More Benfica, some would say. The goalkeeper version included the also popular green kit, worn by Silvino and Manuel Bento in his sole and last appearance for the club, as the iconic goalkeeper ended his career.

Domestic failure alongside brilliant European run

Benfica’s campaign started well enough, with three league wins following an opening draw with Vitória SC before they travelled to Porto, where they were beaten 1-0 by a Demol penalty. It was the day they relinquished the lead, never to get it back. They would lose only on one other occasion in the league, with three matches to go, against Boavista, at a time when the title run was almost done. A series of 25 matches undefeated, which included a home draw against the Dragons, proved how good that Benfica side actually were, but surprising draws in Chaves, Santo Tirso and Santa Maria da Feira proved to be their demise.

They trailed Porto three points after the return tie of the Portuguese Clássico in March, and despite late wins against União da Madeira, Estrela da Amadora and Belenenses, they finished runners-up in the league, four points behind Artur Jorge’s team. Despite the demise in the league and the Cup, with a surprise defeat early on at the hands of Vitória FC, a Super Cup win against Belenenses was followed by a memorable European campaign. Benfica’s run brought back memories of their glorious past. They overcame Derry City and Honved in the autumn and then Dniepr in the last eight.

Then came Olympique Marseille in the semis. A 2-1 away defeat at the Velodrome had some doubting the Portuguese champions had it in them to overturn the deficit, but for the very last time in the old European Cup, the Luz stadium roared like they only knew, and the French champions froze for the entirety of the return leg. A handball goal by Angolan striker Vata decided the match in their favour. It was also the first time Benfica wore their Hummel kit in Europe.

Hummel takes over

The debut had happened in the league in a Lisbon Derby against Sporting, in late March, with a 2-1 home win. The relationship between the club and Adidas had grown sour by that time, and the deal ended, so Benfica decided to move from the original season provider to the German brand with whom they signed a deal until 1994. In Marseille, they wore the new model for the first time that would accompany them from April onwards. It would be unthinkable today to have a club playing in the Champions League final with two different kit suppliers in the same season, but in 1990, football marketing was still almost in its infancy, and everything was possible.

The Hummel version differed only in that the three stripes were replaced by the company’s own logo on the shoulder, followed by a white trim from collar to armpit. The rest remained the same – style of red, white or red shorts and socks accordingly – but it still amazes many how such a big club could move on during the season from one brand to another, up to the point many still misjudge the 1989/90 Adidas template as part of the previous campaign.

Benfica’s Hummel kit used in the 1989/90 season [Image: www.footballkitarchive.com]

The biggest difference was actually in the goalkeeper’s version, with the all-green kit replaced by a green and black shirt with black shorts and a more modern aesthetic to it. That win against Marseille was one of the most memorable in the history of the club and set up a European Cup final against AC Milan, the same rival who ended their winning streak in 1963.

Guttmann curse bites again

The final would be in Vienna, and the day before, Eusébio, now part of the coaching staff, decided to visit the grave of his former manager, Belá Guttmann, to try to lift the so-called curse he had placed upon the side. Whether there was ever a curse or not, nobody knows. It is common knowledge that the Benfica board refused to give the Austrian a pay raise after winning the European Cup twice. Benfica then entered a streak of four finals played, four lost, plus another defeat in the UEFA Cup. It was said that Guttman told the board that without him, Benfica would never win the European Cup and no Portuguese side would be able to do it for a hundred years.

Well, Porto had just claimed the trophy in 1987, so it seemed a flawed curse, at best, but Eusébio tried his best nonetheless. It wasn’t enough. A Frank Rijkaard goal meant the Rossoneri won back-to-back trophies, and Benfica have never since participated in the most important club football match in the season, despite back-to-back Europa League finals between 2012 and 2013. Sporting Adidas kits, funnily enough, with whom they signed again in 1998 and have remained faithful to ever since.

Some might say that perhaps it wasn’t the Guttman curse at all that prevented Benfica from winning the trophy; perhaps it was just the wrong kit at the wrong time. Either way, both football shirts entered the emotional legacy of that period in the history of the club. One of them is associated with the brilliant beginning of the season, Benfica confirming to the football world that they were still one of the best sides on the planet. The other kit, however, paved the way for a more sombre and darker period in the years to come. One season, two iconic kits.