The french toy maker Delacoste distributed Subbuteo teams in France in the 70's. They also painted their own teams which you can easily tell if you look at how glossy the paint jobs are (compared to "true" Subbuteo teams). Eric Caillaux provided me with scans of Delacoste team catalogs from various years. It is quite interesting to show the inspiration for the painted kits by showing pictures of the real kits. This is what I am aiming to do here. Because it is very time consumming, I will concentrate on teams that are special to me. I am hoping this page will expand as time goes by though. If there is a french team you want me to honour, let me know and I will do some research (if you have pictures or text, send them my way and I'll try to put them here). The pictures of the real kits have been picked up on the internet so, if there is any copyright issue with any of them, please let me know and they will be removed.

Now let us look at individual teams and what the real kits look like. Then you may wanna judge if Delacoste or Subbuteo did a good job painting the teams. It's mildly fun.

Sporting Club de l'Ouest Angers

The SCO is my favourite team. In the seventies, it was known as the "elevator" because it kept going from division 1 to division 2 and vice versa. Do the names Guillou or Berdoll ring a bell ? Well, those guys are legends in Anjou.

The all-white kit. Real Madrid look-alike except for the SCO letters on the chest. This picture is from the 1969 Coupe de France game against OM (semi-final I believe which they lost). Nowadays, the short and socks are black.

Paris Football Club

Paris FC is the "other" Paris team. In 1970, Paris FC and Paris SG were the same team. Then there was the split in 1972: Paris FC remained in top flight and Paris SG went down the stairs. A few years later, Paris SG went back to top flight and Paris FC started its dangerous slide to the lower divisions. Sad if you ask me. The 1975 Delacoste catalog shows Paris FC with the same kit as Paris SG. This is an enigma for me because I do not think it can be (correct me if I am wrong and provide picture to support your claim :).

The orange kit. Subbuteo has a Paris FC kit with a white horizontal stripe chest-high. The white stripe is for the sponsor name which happens to be BIC (cheap pens). Thank you Eric for pointing that out.

The light blue kit. That's Jean-Christophe Thouvenel by the way. The kit is from the 78/79 season when Paris FC was in division 1 (called ligue 1 now). Delacoste is right on the money with the sash which happens to flow real well with the 1 of the Europe 1 sponsor. Here it appears to be black but it might have been dark blue (not sure).

Paris Saint-Germain

PSG is either magik or tragik. Another favourite of mine. The only Parisian team that's left in the top division. The logo says it was created in 1970, but really if you think about it, 1972 would be a better choice since it is the year of the split with Paris FC.

The red kit. This is the 71/72 team with Jean Djorkaeff (Youri's dad) captaining the side. Anybody knows what stadium that is ? Kinda looks like Stade Bauer, the home of the Red Star.

The dark blue kit with the big vertical red stripe. Some say Daniel Hechter, PSG's president and famous man fashion designer, came up with the idea but who knows ? This picture is from the 73/74 season. It shows CANADA DRY (ginger ale) as the sponsor.

This is the away kit: red with dark blue stripe. Picture is from the 74/75 season. The sponsor is RTL, a popular radio station. Classic!

Red Star

One of the oldest football clubs in France (Le Havre is the oldest if you don't know). Red Star is second oldest I believe. Not quite a parisian club but very close. It is headquartered in Saint-Ouen, home of the famed flea market. Not much to discuss about the kits because it's been green (and white) for ages. By the way I don't think the name has anything to do with communism but I could be wrong.

The green kit. That is a team photo from the 72/73 season. There is the great Robert Pintenat front row far right (of Sochaux fame mostly).

Olympique Lyonnais

Lyon is finally having a great team these days. They used to be not so good back in the days especially when compared with the archrival Saint-Etienne. The team colors are red, blue and white (go figure!) and they have had all kinds of kits mixing up those colors over the years. It is surprisingly quite difficult to find "live" pictures from the 70s or 80s, so kit renderings will have to do.

The red/blue band kit. This is the classic kit from the 60's and early 70's. If you go to TOFFS, that's the one you will find.

The red kit. From the 1976/77 season. The sleeves do not appear to have any stripes. The sponsor is Banga, a well known orange flavored concoction kids love.

Well, here's Bernard Lacombe sporting that all red kit if that's BANGA written on his chest (doubt it though). The other guy plays for AS Nancy-Lorraine by the way (of Platini fame).

The red kit. From the 1977/78 season. Not sure how the sleeves looked like to be honest. Probably had the white/blue stripes the Delacoste team has. The sponsor is RTL, a well known radio station parents love.

The blue/red stripe kit. From the 1978/80 seasons. The tiny white stripes are what make this kit so "colorful". I think they were a tad wider on the real kit and on both sides of the main stripes. Back in the days, this kit was pure gold. Now kinda looks funny (and very Crystal Palacy).

Association Sportive de Saint-Etienne

What can be said about "les Verts" here ? Back in the seventies, ASSE was the most popular team in France by far. Remember Glasgow in 76 and what would have happened if the bar had been round instead of square. Another easy one, they always wear green (and white).

The green kit with the MANUFRANCE sponsor. Manufrance sold all kind of stuff mail-order (they had stores too but never saw one), kinda like Sears in the US. That kit is classic-er than classic. Legendary.

The green kit with black shorts. That photo is from the 76 euro champions final against Bayern (Hoeness is battling with Janvion). Notice the blue/white/red ribbons which were only worn that year by all french teams (not completely sure though). The short is black because in those days TV was black and white and team colors had to have good contrast (Bayern had the white shorts that day). In my opinion, looks way better than the kit with the white shorts.