The Most Eye-Catching Purple Football Teams Across The World
Markus k44, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Football kits are an exciting aspect of the most popular sport on the planet, with most football teams producing three different kits each season. Certain teams are associated with particular colours – Manchester United with red, Chelsea with blue and Real Madrid with white. One colour we don’t tend to see that often is purple.
In this detailed article, we discuss the top 8 football teams with purple kits, as well as Premier League purple strips used by Manchester City and Everton. If you’d like to learn more about this topic, we recommend reading on.
Table of Contents
Football Teams with Purple Kits
The top 8 purple football teams are:
- Fiorentina
- FK Austria Wien
- RSC Anderlecht
- Orlando City
- Real Valladolid
- MFM FC
- Perth Glory
- Toulouse FC
1. Fiorentina
Arguably the most iconic purple football team is Serie A’s Fiorentina. Their iconic club crest includes the colours purple, white and red, a combination you don’t see too often. Having formed in 1926, their first few kits used a red and white colour combination.
In the 1929/30 season, they produced their first purple kit, but this wasn’t exactly planned. A mistake took place when Fiorentina washed their kit, as the red and white dyes ran into each other, which subsequently created a shade of purple. This “mistake” was in fact greeted very well by their supporters, which led the Violets to adopt purple as their official club colour moving forward.
Club greats Gabriel Batistuta, Roberto Baggio and Adrian Mutu have worn their eye-catching purple kits with pride over the years, making Fiorentina the most iconic purple football team in the world.
2. FK Austria Wien
Football teams that play in purple don’t come around that often, and the next team in our purple football teams list takes us to Austria. FK Austria Wien, who hail from Austria’s capital, Vienna, are one of the most successful Austrian domestic football teams.
Having been founded in 1911, the club have won the most trophies of any Austrian club from the top flight when combining domestic titles and league cups. They’ve even had versions of their home kit that are all purple (shirt, shorts and socks), so they are certainly strong ambassadors for the colour.
3. RSC Anderlecht
The third entry in our list of football teams that play in purple, is Belgium’s RSC Anderlecht. Titled ‘Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht’ the club truly reflects the royal and luxury connections to the colour purple.
Anderlecht mainly uses a combination of purple and white for their home kits, and their colours were inspired by Belgian immigrants that lived in Antigua, Guatemala. They were founded in 1908, and are the most successful Belgian team in European competitions, having won the following five honours:
- European Cup (1982/83)
- European Super Cup (1976, 1978)
- UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup (1975/76, 1977/78)
4. Orlando City
The youngest club in our list is MLS’ Orlando City. Having only been founded in 2013, the club has a purple crest with a golden lion on it. This colour scheme represents the club’s appreciation for the Orlando Lions. The Lions were the first professional football team in Orlando, who were in operation from 1985 to 1996.
Orlando has had a couple of footballing legends play in its purple kit. Brazilian maestro Kaká joined the club in 2014, making 78 appearances and scoring 25 goals. He was one of the first major MLS signings. Another big name to play for Orlando was ex-Manchester United forward Nani. He joined the club in 2019 and made 88 appearances, scoring 31 goals.
Watch Nani’s top 5 MLS goals in purple by watching the following video:
5. Real Valladolid
The next purple football club in our list is Spain’s Real Valladolid. Having fluctuated between La Liga and Segunda División, the club have worn a purple and white striped home shirt every season since its formation in 1928. Its crest is a combination of purple, white, red and yellow, which is certainly interesting on the eye.
The reason why the club wears the colour purple is because of its formation. In 1928, two teams joined forces to create Real Valladolid: Spanish Sports Club and Royal Sports Union. The former wore a red kit, meanwhile the latter wore a blue kit. In order to try and create a badge and kit that would signify the joining of these two forces, a purple shirt was suggested (mixing both red and blue together).
One idea put forward was to create something similar to Barcelona’s shirt (red and blue stripes), however Valladolid opted for purple, which became truly unique in Spain as there were no other purple football teams playing in the country.
6. MFM FC
One of the more obscure purple football clubs is MFM FC, who hail from Nigeria. Fluctuating between the first and second tiers of Nigerian football, the club sport an eye-catching purple home strip.
You might be wondering what MFM stands for. Well, it stands for the ‘Mountain of Fire and Faith Ministries’, this is the Christian Pentecostal religious organisation that established the team in 2007.
7. Perth Glory
The seventh team in our list of purple football clubs is Perth Glory. Since their formation in 1995, the Australian A-League club have worn a purple home kit every single season. Although the A-League often struggles to attract big name players, Perth have had a couple of gems play in purple.
The following players have played in purple for Perth over the years:
- William Gallas (Former Arsenal and Chelsea defender)
- Robbie Fowler (Former Liverpool striker)
- Eugène Dadi (Former Tranmere Rovers striker)
8. Toulouse FC
The final team to make up our list of football teams with purple kits hail from France. Toulouse FC are a Ligue 1 side that play in a purple and white home kit and have a purple badge. The difference between Toulouse and some of the other sides mentioned in this article is that purple is often a secondary colour to white.
They’ve had plain and striped kits, which have been white/purple and purple/white. Some key players to have played for the French side are Fabien Barthez (formerly of Manchester United), André-Pierre Gignac, Johan Elmander and Étienne Capoue.
Premier League Purple Kits
Although there are several football teams whose official colour is purple, that’s not to say that other sides across the world haven’t used purple for their kits over the years. In the Premier League, there are some great examples of one-off purple strips.
Man City Purple Kit
The first example of a Premier League purple kit are the ones that have been used by Manchester City. The “blue half” of Manchester have often used the colour purple in their away and third kits, specifically in the following seasons:
- 2018/19 third kit
- 2016/17 third kit
- 2007/09 away kit
- 1993/94 away kit
- 1992/93 away kit
These Man City purple kits have used a range of striped designs including diagonal stripes, horizontal stripes and vertical stripes.
Everton Purple Kit
Another great example of Premier League purple kits are the ones that have been used by Everton. Everton’s purple kits were in use during the following seasons:
- 2017/18 third kit
- 2009/10 third kit
The most significant purple shirt used by Everton was in the 2009/10 season, this shirt was plain purple with a gold trim, badge and sponsors. This was during the time when the north-west club had the iconic ‘Chang Beer’ sponsor on their shirts.
During this season, iconic players including Leighton Baines, Louis Saha, Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill would’ve worn Everton’s purple kit.
Conclusion
Although purple isn’t the first colour to come to mind when thinking of football shirts, there are several key teams across the world who use it as their official team colour. A colour associated with royalty and heritage, it’s no surprise to see teams like Anderlecht and Real Valladolid adopt purple as their own.
Purple has also been popular when designing one-off away and third kits for clubs across the world, in particular the English Premier League. Will we see purple become more and more popular among football clubs? We’ll have to wait and see.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Do Fiorentina Wear Purple?
Fiorentina wear purple following a laundering accident in 1929. Rumour has it that their previous red-and-white shirts were incorrectly washed in the Arno River, which caused the colours to run and subsequently turned the shirts purple.
From there, the club opted to keep this iconic shirt colour, which is still used today.
