How football clubs choose their colors

The most widespread story attributes Barça's colors to FC Basel, the Swiss club of Joan Gamper, founder of the Catalan club. Gamper, who had played at Basel before settling in Spain, supposedly chose the colors of his former club to dress FC Barcelona. The other version, less cited but documented, mentions the influence of English and Scottish players among the founders, who wanted colors reminiscent of their original clubs.

What is certain: from the very first official match in the club's history in 1899, the players wore blue and garnet. These colors have never changed in 127 years, through four dictatorships, two Republics, the Civil War, and the most brilliant successes in football history.

Juventus did not originally wear black and white. From its founding in 1897 until 1903, the Turin club played in pink. In 1903, an English Juventus player, John Savage, contacted Notts County (the oldest professional club in the world, founded in 1862) to request a batch of spare jerseys. Notts County sent their black and white striped kits, and Juventus adopted them.

What has become one of the most recognizable identities in world football is therefore the result of a second-hand jersey donation from an English second division club. Notts County now plays in the English League Two, and its supporters proudly claim to have provided Juventus's visual identity.

PSG was born in 1970 from the merger of two Parisian clubs: Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The blue comes from the coat of arms of the City of Paris, a historic color associated with the capital since the Middle Ages. The red comes from the flag of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was inspired by the royal arms of the city. White completes the palette of French national colors.

It is therefore an institutional and geographical merger that produced the club's visual identity. Unlike the great English traditions where colors often arrive by accident, PSG deliberately built its identity around Parisian and national symbolic landmarks.

At its founding in 1886 under the name Dial Square FC, the London club had no equipment. Workers from the Woolwich armaments factory had created the team and had neither jerseys nor resources to buy any. Two Scottish players from Nottingham Forest, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, who had just moved to London, contacted their former club to request a donation of jerseys. Nottingham Forest sent red kits, which have remained Arsenal's color for 140 years.

Real Madrid's white comes directly from the club's founders, mostly from the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, who wore white outfits during their sports activities. White was also associated with the tradition of English clubs, which the Spanish founders admired. The title "Real" (Royal) and the crown in the crest were granted by King Alfonso XIII in 1920, which reinforced the white identity associated with the Spanish royalty.

Ajax's colors are directly those of Amsterdam. The coat of arms of the Dutch capital features three black Saint Andrew's crosses on a red and white background, a heraldic identity dating back to the 13th century. The founders of Ajax, who wanted a club rooted in their city's identity, simply adopted the municipal colors. This is one of the clearest examples of the influence of local heraldry on the visual identity of a football club.