Love letter to Palermo's jersey

 Palermo is the most important football team in Sicily, among the most known in Italy and is surely rich in history and glorious moments, although they never won important trophies. In the last fifteen years, they are radically changed, living one of their happier periods under Maurizio Zamparini's presidency, who bought the club in Serie B and took it in Europe. Among prestigious victories, delusions and lots of firings dictated by the volcanic president, nowadays managing is changed and the rosanero are back in the cadet league where, between thousands of uncertainties on the club's future, they are trying to return in Serie A.

Palermo was the common denominator of a lot of famous players and champion and world champion who came in Sicily in the last years of their careers. But first of all Palermo has represented a unique reality in the jerseys scene: PUMA, Joma, Kappa, Lotto, Legea, Ennerre, Hummel and so on are only a few of the co-protagonists that have worn the Sicilian team in the darkest and the brightest moments during years. A particular jersey if it's not for the colours, pink and black, that characterise it among the others. So let's collect the five more representative Palermo's jerseys, characterised by the typical, historical and elegant rosanero colours.

#1 Away, 1998/1999

An authentic collector's item was the Palermo's kits produced by Kappa in the 1998/1999 season. The one we select is dedicated to the away matches. The jersey dyed white, pink and blank, see a white background ridden by four slim rosanero stripes united and separated by a flap of white. The insets on the sleeves and the beautiful collar complete it all with the badges. On the right sleeve, we have the Sicily's region crest while on the right front we have the Kappa logo embroidered black with a slim pink flange.

#2 Home, 1984/1985

The rosanero, part of the Serie C and Ennerre signed on the jerseys, had a positive season that year, ending promoted in Serie B from Serie C. Palermo home jersey for that season was simpler than you might think: pink wool, classic black V collar and borders of the same colour on the extremities of the sleeves. By the way, there is no crest on the jersey; the main sponsor was Juculano. The kit was completed by black shorts and pink socks. And that one in the photo that you can see is Claudio Ranieri at the ending of his career.

#3 Third, 2006/2007

That year Palermo knocked once again at Europe doors, after its qualification for the UEFA Cup groups after they eliminated West Ham on the first round. The team in before managed by Guidolin, then by Gobbo and again by Guidolin, ended penultimate in the hard group with Fenerbahce, Celta Vigo, Newcastle, and Eintracht Frankfurt, however, they were capable of taking advantage of that showcase to show up the inverted colours variant of their home jersey for that season, exposing a black shirt with some pink stripes on the corners and on the sides and the crest right in the middle. Which was the sponsor? Lotto.

#4 Away, 2006/2007

Rework a typical away jersey template and refine it with your identifying mark: this was Lotto's aim before designing the shirt for the away matches of Palermo after the second mythical Serie A season with Zamparini as president. So here's a brilliant jersey, surely among the most beautiful of those years, with a horizontal rosanero band dividing in half the white background and the eagle of Palermo that drowns out it on centre. A homage to the club's history and tradition perfectly done.

#5 Home, 2012/2013

Although the being in the club of players like Dybala, Franco Vazquez, Ilicic, Abel Hernandez, the immortal Brienza and Fabrizio Miccoli at his last season there, that year Palermo got incredibly relegated after almost ten years in Serie A, victim of the sudden manager changes directed by the less and less patient president Zamparini, everywhere known for his flash firings. The team never learned a specific game plan, placing eighteenth and coming back in Serie B for only a year, before of the eleventh position of the 2014/2015 season. Of that dramatic season, we remember a large number of talented ballers in the club and the home jersey characterised by that soft pink, that has something noble, and those black insets proposed by PUMA. Singular mention deserve the collar, simply wonderful and an integral part of the football jerseys' template produced by PUMA that year - we saw it on Italy at EURO 2012 -, and the transparent checkered pattern on the foreground, a very elegant detail.