Van Bronckhorst T-shirt Dilemma

The Netherlands have been doing extremely well in the World Cup so far, winning every match. Tonight, we’ll be playing the final against Spain, which we’ll hopefully win. I decided I should get myself an orange t-shirt in order to support my country, seeing as I have no orange clothing at all. Of course not just any shirt, but I wanted a t-shirt of my favorite player, Giovanni van Bronckhorst. I believe this is his last match for the Dutch national soccer team and he’s the captain, so I thought it would be extra nice to have a shirt with his name. So off I went, to all the little tourist shops with soccer t-shirts and sport stores in Amsterdam.

However, it turned out that I wanted something that didn’t exist. I went to like, ten different stores and NONE of them had a Van Bronckhorst t-shirt! There were lots of Sneijder, van Bommel, van der Vaart, Robben, van Persie and Kuyt, but none of van Bronckhorst! He’s the captain of the Dutch team, why not make t-shirts with his name???

Frustrated, I continued my search online. It turns out that on the KNVB (Royal Netherlands Football Association) was giving fans the opportunity to get a t-shirt with their favorite soccer player, but not for Van Bronckhorst because 10 letters was the limit. 16 letters is too long, and even ‘Bronckhorst’ with 11 characters won’t work. It’s a national mystery as to how Van Bronckhorst got his own shirt…

A little search at Marktplaats, the Dutch version of Ebay didn’t help either. Apparently it’s easier to get a life-sized Van Bronckhorst out of cardboard than a simple t-shirt. Fun, but not -exactly- what I wanted.

In the meantime, I’m wearing my nameless orange soccer shirt with a little help of Photoshop…