Football Kits:The man who has one of the largest shirt collections in Europe, all from a room in his house.

Arjan Wijngaard has collected nearly 3,000 shirts, and it all started with an Everton Kit in 1997

The year is 2018, and around 80 or 90 fans battled the chilly weather, you would normally expect on a November evening, to watch Enfield FC beat Tower Hamlets FC in the Essex Senior League.

For the majority of people in attendance to this lower league fixture, this was probably a regular pastime, but for one it was part of a much larger hobby.

Arjan Wijngaard is a football shirt collector from the Netherlands, and his collection often sees him travelling to different matches across the continent.

The Dutchman often tries to visit London annually, and in 2018 he found himself buried deep in London, just north of the River Thames, at the Mile End Stadium.

Although I am sure it was an entertaining fixture, Wijngaard didn’t just go to watch the match, he was there to collect kits and spread his story, which he did successfully over a cup of coffee after the match had finished. It was probably in an attempt to warm himself up.

He was served by the Tower Hamlets’ president, who offered to give him a kit, outside a tube station the next day. Arjan went along, collected the kit, and quickly found himself at Enfield’s ground.

That was his second kit collected that day, albeit straight from the dirty washing bag, but Arjan took it, with pleasure, and now they have become just two of the shirts out of 2,912 collected.

It is an impressive amount that has turned one of his rooms into an incredible arrangement of colours and designs all shown on display.

The first kit was gifted to him, by some football fans, whilst on holiday in Spain, in 1997. It was an Everton shirt, that donned the NEC sponsor that Everton had throughout the late 1980s to mid-90s.

Wijngaard said, “It is difficult to say when I started to collect them as a hobby.

“I liked football and during the time when I got the Everton shirt, it was more common to wear football shirts outside of the stadium, so that is when I started collecting.

“It become a real collection when I got my job because I had more cash and money to buy the shirts.

“It started with 10 or 20 shirts, then by 2005 I had around 200 shirts, and now in 2023 I have nearly 3000.”

It is one of the biggest football shirt collections in Europe, with the variation spreading across numerous countries, and leagues, with his favourite shirt holding a special place in his heart as it is a retro F.C. Groningen shirt, Wijngaard’s local team.

The collection features the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, but as the collection has grown, he has moved away from the shirts often associated with the stars.

Arjan said, “I like to go to larger cities in Europe, and then look for what teams are in the city and then plan the trip for when there is a game on.

“When I am in the big cities because there are normally two or three clubs, I mostly go to the smaller club of the two.

“In Barcelona, I have been to Espanyol. In Valencia, I have been to Levante and they are the sort of choices I make.

“I go to the stadium and to the shop to buy one but shirts at that level are normally too much, so I often buy them in the sale.

“Of course, I have Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal, and I don’t buy them anymore because I have them, and for a collector, the rarity is more important. That is why I prefer Tower Hamlet above anyone from Real Madrid and Man City.”

Out of context, it is a bold claim, but it is difficult to imagine Arjan being served a hot brew by Florentino Pérez and sharing shirts outside Madrid’s metro, which is something non-league clubs can do.

This is something Wijngaard really appreciates, “When I go to a non-league game, I tell my story, and most of the time they have older shirts lying around, and for me the season doesn’t matter for me because by the time it is next season the kit is old already.

“If I can get a cheap kit from two or three seasons ago that is fine as well, and I often get some co-operation from these clubs because they like the story.”

At this stage, Wijngaard has been collecting shirts for nearly 25 years, and across two centuries, so the way he has added to his collection has definitely changed.

The rise of social media has meant that Wijngaard is able to showcase his shirts to people through his online catalogue, which has registered all the shirts he owns.

Arjan said, “Sharing the shirts is part of the collecting, to show a bit of what you have, not in a rude way but just proud of what I have, and people asking about it is fun.

“It is more of an online showing because I don’t receive people here and I don’t want too many people here because it is in my house, because you never know the purpose of people’s visits.”

The creation of eBay and Vinted has allowed the Dutchman to also save a bit of money when possible, and with a near 3,000 shirts, every penny counts.

He said: “It is a lot easier to buy shirts. In the past, I would have to buy them in the sports shop or whilst I am on holiday, but nowadays I can just buy them online and I can look the whole day, which makes it easier to collect.

“The question of if it is more fun is always difficult to say, but I still prefer to buy the shirt in person because it gives you a better feeling, although eBay gives a great chance to increase your collection.”

Whether Wijngaard collects his shirts whilst scouring the internet or in a random meet-up with a senior club official, he has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“There is no aim, I don’t collect to have as much as possible, I just like to have as many teams as I can, and with so many teams around the world, I still have a lot to go.

“I don’t think it can be complete, and it definitely won’t be complete when I die.”

P.S. If anyone would like to contribute to Arjan's collection you can follow him on Twitter (@vtblshirts) or on his website (http://voetbalshirts.org/)