A lot of things have happened in football over the last fortnight, but a Bob Marley Ajax shirt is causing quite a stir.
The Dutch giants are reportedly set to release a third-kit which commemorates the reggae legend. One of Marley’s biggest hits, ‘Three Little Birds’, is a terrace classic at the Johan Cruijff ArenA [YouTube].
The sleek Adidas design is a black kit with green, red and yellow detail, including three little birds featuring prominently. It’s class. Undoubtedly, when the world re-opens, it’s the kind of kit you’ll see at fives with incredible regularity.
However, Ajax weren’t Bob Marley’s team. Celtic were. In an interview with the Celtic View back in December (09/12 print edition, page 21), Rohan Marley talked of his father’s love for Glasgow’s Green and White.
He said [Celtic View]:
“I always loved Celtic. They were one of my father’s favourite teams. He would talk about Celtic and that’s how I came to know them.
“I don’t remember a lot about that because I was young but I just remember him loving Celtic and telling me about them winning the European Cup.
MORE CELTIC STORIES
“When he was in Europe, he was able to see a lot of the big football games on TV. He watched a lot of English football and Scottish football.
“He would record all the games and I watched them years later at my grandmother’s house. That’s how I came across all these Celtic players from the late 1970s and early ’80s because I’d watch these tapes of Celtic versus Rangers games over and over again.”
Could we see a Celtic Bob Marley design from Adidas?
While it’d probably be a rip-off by this point, it’s not a guarantee that Celtic wouldn’t do something like this. When the club’s in-house media have already talked up Bob Marley’s love for the club, it’s clear that it’s not an association that Celtic mind. If anything, they encourage it, because: it’s Bob Marley.
Celtic kit designs, especially commemorative ones, tend to err on the side of the club’s history. For example, the excellent 125th anniversary away kit. It was elegant, so simple in its style.
At the very least, we’re keeping everything crossed that should Celtic choose a musical icon connected to the club for future kit influence, it’d be Bob Marley. We dread to think what a Rod Stewart/Adidas collaboration would look like.
So, yes, the Marley kit is cool. That’s unavoidable, and Ajax have every right to celebrate him, as much as us.
Something to think about, though. If you’re a Celtic supporter, you’ve something in common with Bob Marley.