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Goalkeepers' Uniforms:

1984 Yellow
1986 Grey

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England's Uniforms

England's Tournament Uniform
World Cup May-June

1984 Home Uniform
1986 Away Blue Uniform
 1986 Away Red Uniform
1987 Home Uniform 
 
 

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Description

White short-sleeved shirt, with wide shadow-stripes. Navy-blue v-neck, with thin white stripe in middle and two thin red stripes either side of it. White hem on sleeves. Thin navy-blue stripe along shoulder. Embroidered emblem on left breast, with 'FIFA WORLD CUP' and then 'MEXICO'86' (without a space between) centralised in capitalised navy-blue lettering underneath. Two embroidered navy-blue concentric diamonds on right breast, with 'umbro' in navy-blue lower-case lettering underneath. Red numbers on back, in the old Umbro font last worn by England on the previous year's tour.

Navy-blue shorts, with white drawstring. White seams, with two thin navy-blue stripes, each edged with a thin outer red stripe. White numbers on left thigh in the same font as on the back of the shirt (except that the number one was just a simple rectangular bar with no base or 'flick' at the top (right)), with two embroidered white concentric diamonds underneath, and 'umbro' in white lower-case lettering beneath them. Embroidered emblem on right thigh.

White socks. Solid navy-blue diamonds across tops, edged with two red hoops.

Variations
  • For the first two games, there was no World Cup lettering underneath the emblem on the shirt, nor was there a number on the shorts.
Most Appearances

7 - Terry Butcher, Glenn Hoddle, Kenny Sansom

  • With the period being such an important one for the national team, no players made their international debuts in the shirt.

  • Tottenham Hotspur's Gary Stevens made his seventh and last international appearance, as a substitute against Paraguay.

Top Scorers

6 - Gary Lineker

3 - Mark Hateley

2 - Peter Beardsley

  • Lineker's six goals won him the World Cup's Golden Boot.

  • Hateley's goals in the two World Cup warm-up games in North America, were his last three for his country.

  • Beardsley's goals were his first two for England.

Captains

3 - Bryan Robson

1 - Ray Wilkins

  • Bryan Robson was captain until his dislocated shoulder ended his World Cup.

  • Ray Wilkins captained England for the last time, against Canada.

  • The goalkeeper, Peter Shilton took over the captaincy for the remainder of the World Cup after Robson's injury but not, of course, in this shirt.

 

It was a confident England that headed for Mexico in 1986 via the United States and Canada. They had been unbeaten for almost a year and a lot of thought had gone into their attire for the upcoming tournament.

This was a lighter shirt, but different from the Airtex version worn in Mexico, the previous year. The shadow stripes were thicker and the removal of the cuffs offered more ventilation.

There were three warm-up games, beginning with an unofficial 4-1 defeat of South Korea at Colorado. England wore all white, using the shorts from their change kit. For the tournament, the finishing touches were added. These were the World Cup lettering underneath the emblem, a first for England, and the addition of the squad number on the left thigh, which was a change to the positioning from the previous World Cup, when it had been on the right thigh.

England got off to a slow start. They lost two captains (Robson through injury and Wilkins to a red card) and it took them three games to score a goal, but once Gary Lineker had broken his duck, there was no stopping him as he became the first Englishman to win the prestigious Golden Boot as the World Cup's top scorer.

The white shirt was worn in every game, but when it came to the crunch clash with Argentina in the quarter-finals, England were kitted out in a unique combination. The pale blue shorts and socks from one of England's change kits were worn with the white shirt.

It was not a lucky combination, unlike Diego Maradona's sleight of hand in giving the South Americans the lead. His second goal was sheer brilliance and England were on their way home.


Matches in which England wore the 1986 Home White Uniform
Season 1985-86

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Bobby Robson

Pre-World Cup Tour of North America
612 17 May 1986 - Mexico 0 England 3 [0-3]
LA Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park, Los Angeles (45,000)
Hateley (2), Beardsley NW
613 24 May 1986 - Canada 0 England 1 [0-0]
Swangard Stadium, Central Park, Burnaby
(8,150)
Hateley AW
World Cup Finals in Mexico
614 3 June 1986 - Portugal 1 England 0 [0-0]
Estadio Tecnológico, Tecnológico, Monterrey (19,998)
Carlos Manuel NL
615 6 June 1986 - England 0 Morocco 0 [0-0]
Estadio Tecnológico, Tecnológico, Monterrey
 (22,600)
  ND
616 11 June 1986 - England 3 Poland 0 [3-0]
Estadio Universitario de Nuevo León, San Nicolas de los Garza, Monterrey
 (22,600)
Lineker (3) NW
617 18 June 1986 - England 3 Paraguay 0 [1-0]
Estadio Azteca, Santa Úrsula, ciudad de México (98,728)
Lineker (2), Beardsley NW
618 22 June 1986 - Argentina 2 England 1 [0-0]
Estadio Azteca, Santa Úrsula, ciudad de México (114,580)
Maradona (2)
Lineker
NL
England wore the white home shirt with the 1986 away pale-blue shorts and socks, against Argentina.

Unofficial match in which England wore the 1986 Home White Uniform
Season 1985-86

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Bobby Robson
Friendly match
295 14 May 1986 -
Korea Republic 1 England 4 [0-2]
Fountain Valley School, Colorado Springs (3,000)
Kang
Hateley, Robson, Dixon (2)
NW
England wore all white, the white home shirt and socks with the 1986 away white shorts, against Korea Republic.

Viv Anderson only wore the shirt with the World Cup lettering as an unused substitute against Poland and Paraguay, but he played against Mexico in the shirt without the lettering.

England's Record wearing the 1986 World Cup Shirt
Type P W D L F A GD FTS CS FAv AAv Pts % W/L
Away 1 1 0 0 1 0 +1 0 1 1.00 0.00 100.0 +1
Neutral 6 3 1 2 10 3 +7 2 4 1.667 0.50 58.3 +1
Total 7 4 1 2 11 3 +8 2 5 1.571 0.429 64.3 +2

This is the style of shirt worn by England in the World Cup warm-up games i.e. without lettering below the emblem.

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CG/GI/PY/JB