German Football kit

[cs843432]

My son likes the German football kit due to the colours but I'm trying to encourage some patriotism by offering to buy him a kit for a different country. I've nothing against the country or people obviously but I don't think he understands the tremendous (friendly) football rivalry that exists (or doesn't it exist any more?)

Just buy him the kit, who really cares?

How old is he?

What country do you live in/your nationality?

He is 14 and we are English...

That sounds strange, like you’re saying he’s not allowed to like Germans?

If you want to encourage patriotism then why not buy him the England kit? Why buy him the kit of another country as you've stated in your op?

My son has an England top and a Germany (H&M version) top. I don't see the problem?

The German kits this year are awesome. Let him have the kit if that's what he wants.

My son wears a German football kit because he loves one of the players. I can't see the issue.

He'd be fine around here in a Germany top, Spurs on the other hand.....

Also, the rivalry only takes place in English adults heads. Kids won't know anything about it. Neither do Germans for that matter. Their rivals are The Netherlands.

I know when we went on holiday etc my football mad DS used to get kit from other countries but by the time he was that age he would only have worn England kit.

It's an odd thing for a boy that age to want a kit because of the colour when the rivalries are very clear by the time you are 14. The "banter" is pretty full on by that age.

Does he follow football/support England/like a german player in the PL?

At the end of the day I guess the right message is that he can wear the kit he likes-think maybe more as fashion than a statement?

It sounds like thinly veiled xenophobia. Why would you go out of your way to underline division with a particular country? A child being interested in another country’s culture is a good thing not a bad thing. It’s something to encourage as opposed to filling his head with jingoistic and slightly dubious rhetoric about “patriotism”.

Just let him have the kit he wants.

14 year old ds has several football kits from teams all over Europe, as do his friends. Plus some from various Premier League teams nowhere near us.

The only kit he absolutely wouldn't be seen dead in would be that of our nearest City, the localish 'rivals' because his friends would absolutely take the piss. Not the done thing at all. Germany, Spain, France or whatever is no issue though.

I don't know why he can't have the Germany kit?!

My DS had all kinds of kits - Argentina, Olympiakos, Real Madrid and Man City (his team even though we live in Liverpool and am a Liverpool fan 😂😂). I don't see the issue.

I think it hugely depends upon where you live. I took my then 3 year old out in his favourite (non local) kit to a country fayre type place and a grown man had a ‘friendly’ go at him, several others made disparaging comments. I was left feeling awful and from that point on I didnt let him wear football kit to anywhere that wasn’t football training/a match or around the house/around the house of a family member.

fortunately now he is older he would rather poke his own eyes out that wear kit when not actually playing sport but i know he’s unusual in that.

It was eye opening to me how much people (men) genuinely seemed to care about something I feel is totally trivial

My football mad 16 y.o DS has football kits from all over the world. He buys a top wherever we are on holiday and gets they ones you get in mystery boxes as well. No one will bat an eyelid. Only shirt my DS wouldn't be seen dead in is a red one but that is for entirely local rivalry reasons.

My kids have the English and Portuguese kit, but they would never ever dream of having the local teams rival kit 😂😂 - Utd vs City and all that 😂😂☠️

At 14, it's up to him.
I guess it might depend where you live, if you live in any area of high knife crime/ gang warfare and general antisocial behaviour then it's probably not the best idea as realistically some people loving any justification for a fight, it's not really about football or nationalism, they just want any excuse to ridicule and then when it's rebuffed they feel entitled to throw a punch or worse....

Of course it's ok for him to have Germany kit.

It’s football kit, not a replica SS uniform. Let him wear it!

As long as it's not the old Hugo Boss kit, then you're fine.

You sound weird. If you’d like to encourage patriotism then buy him an England kit and don’t forget to fill your DS head with “patriotic” reasons why he can’t wear a German kit: how absolutely pathetic in this day and age. Don’t beat around the bush and show him exactly who you are.

Since he was very young - he is in his 30s now - my son collected football tops. He has absolutely loads of them. He has never thrown any out even though a lot don't fit him any more. When he was a teenager the German shirt of the time was one of his favourites and he wore it a lot. It is a really brilliant design. It would never ever have occurred to me when we bought it to say " you can't have that."

I think it's sad that you want to teach your son dislike of a country based purely on football rivalry.

The new German kit is actually really nice, so I get it.

why not see if they have a similar training top?

weve been buying my 9yo loads of football tops lately. She’s got 2 x inter Miami, an England one, a Bayern Munich one and 2 x Ipswich Town ones. Her whole team has a complete mix of shirts when they turn up to training.

My 14 year old has loads of different kits, he’s not allowed to wear them abroad and he wasn’t allowed to wear them when during the England euros games but other than that don’t worry.