Meet Arjan Wijngaard, the man with 3,000 classic football kits in his possession

What do you do when you have nearly 3,000 football shirts in your possession? If your name is Arjan Wijngaard, the answer is award a coin of your home as display space and register each shirt in a comprehensive online catalog.

Recently, These Football Times spoke to Dutch football shirt collector Arjan Wijngaard, the man behind www.voetbalshirts.org and owner of one of the biggest collections of retro football shirts not only in the Netherlands, but all over Europe.

For nearly 25 years, Arjan has collected football shirts from all over the world, starting with an Everton shirt given to him in 1997. With such an enduring reputation, we asked him what got him. pushed to collect jerseys. in the first place.

“The first question is the hardest,” he says. "Of course, I liked football in the first place. It's an important thing if you want to collect football shirts. There is no particular reason why I chose shirts, however. Some people choose shirts. scarves (I also have scarves because if I can't have a shirt when I visit a stadium or a match, I try to buy a scarf instead) In fact, I might have better choose scarves or pins; they are much cheaper and don't need a lot of space!"

Walk through Arjan's shirt showroom and it's easy to see what he means. From ceiling to floor, the walls are fitted with shelves that groan under the enormous weight of its collection. The doorway is an incongruous rectangle of white in an otherwise ubiquitous banquet of color, while in the window two mannequins stand sentinel in green and blue garb. It's a real sacrarium for shirts - clubs that are both big and soft.

"In general, I like to collect club shirts that are not very easy to find," says Arjan. "Like the lower and non-league levels, for example, stages 9 and 10 of the [English football] pyramid or clubs from countries that are not known as famous football countries like New Zealand or Tanzania. "

However, not everyone can show up and walk around their showroom. Arjan uses the internet extensively to display his collection, as he runs a website – where he catalogs shirts by country, club and division – as well as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, all under the Voetbalshirts.org banner. But what inspired him to start this online odyssey?

“There were several reasons. First, it was to show others what I have. Second, so that the insurance would prove that I had all the shirts in case of fire or theft. Plus, having my collection online makes it easier for me to see what I already have, especially when looking for new ones online and when I'm in (fan) shops overseas. »

These are the two primary avenues through which Arjan acquires the vast majority of his shirts. Prior to the ongoing global pandemic, he undertook about five trips a year to foreign countries to expand his collection, with two or three of those visits occurring across the North Sea to Britain. But with flight restrictions hampering his ability to obtain shirts from the clubs themselves, he increasingly used the internet.

"I prefer to buy them personally at the club shop near the stadium, but that's not always possible with over 2,700 shirts," he admits. "Other options are online club shops and, of course, eBay, but also groups on Facebook and other collectors here in the Netherlands, abroad and on Twitter. Over the years, I 've made contacts all over the world and it's also a fun part of collecting."

Indeed, Arjan is deeply rooted in the football shirt community where he plays a prominent and active role as one of Europe's most dedicated...