Well helloooo there, Jill. Getting awful close now, isn’t it? If you have found yourself stranded, deep into Fergie Time during the holiday season and grasping around for something, anything, to give to the compilation-watching, Diego Maradona T-shirt-wearing, Nike Tiempo leather-sniffing football obsessive in your life, then do we have the gift guide for you. Below, you will find everything that a person will ever want or need in their life. Trust us, because we are, in fact, that person. Welcome to MUNDIAL’s extremely last-minute gift guide, as thrilling and unexpected as a 96th minute half-volley scored by your portly Sunday League centre-half…
KITS
Your boyfriend’s favourite shirt. Get him another one. 30% of profits go directly to Medical Aid for Palestinians, too.
Probably the MUNDIAL shirt of the year. Probably.
Il Divin Codino sold separately.
Imagine the compliments you’ll get in the clinically-lit sports bar at 2am when you’re watching Haiti v Scotland this summer.
Santa’s elves have gotten really into Rheinhessen-Bräu beers and explaining why the Mewa Arena under the lights is the best stadium in Europe. They’re not convincing anyone, of course, but this season’s home shirt looks like a Christmas jumper, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? It very much can be all year round.
The very, very, very good people at Kappa celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Kombat 2000 this year with a load of lovely reissues, but Club Atlético Aldosivi stole the show—a stretchy masterpiece of design.
GEAR
MUNDIAL’s Puma Kings are (very sadly) sold out, but you should treat a loved one in your life to the next best thing. Kings forever.
We tried desperately to wrestle the laptop away from Matt. We could not stop him. Why shouldn’t he (and you, and your mates, and your family) have another denim jacket?
Little bit of French terry for you to wear to the first training session of the new year. “Yeah, it’s from this brand based in Antwerp, celebrates North Africa’s impact on European football culture. Pretty amazing, actually.” You know what? It is pretty amazing, actually.
Trust us. These are the best socks in the world. They won’t be blown away at first, but a few months down the line, they’ll be asking you for the link, and wouldn’t that be lovely?
A Ballon d’Or-winning beanie made by Accrington’s finest producer of garments and greatest lover of calcio. Based on the Zmijovka, a woollen hat that used to keep the farmers of Czechia warm during cold, sullen Central European winters. Now it’s yours, to pop on for a brisk walk around the corner for when it all gets a bit much.
THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN, THAT LACK OF GUIDANCE AND DIADORA! A pair of trainers that are the exact same shade as the chocolate cake from Matilda. Get them before your family consigns you to a stint in the chokey.
No one should have to think in December. Don’t think then, get our mates at Classic Football Shirts to do the thinking for you. It’s like Deal or No Deal, but the banker is trying to offer you an Ascoli windbreaker.
“Alexa, play “Roberto Baggio” by Matteo Vivani, please. Queue it for the next ten hours.”
So Young writes about the best new music. It will make you feel, well, young again, just like this long-sleeve they’ve done. Support independent print, always.
STONE ISLAND | NEW BALANCE FURON V
Life is far too short to not wear champagne Stone Island x New Balance football boots while you shank a clearance out of play on that first Sunday morning back after the holidays. Go get it.
“New trainers,” the weird uncle you’ve not seen for 12 months asks you as you aimlessly stroll around a nondescript, wooded area on Boxing Day. This could be you.
Always remember to stretch before tackling. A hug for your thighs from the best in the business.
STUFF
Can anyone catch high-flying Frosinone this season? Watch out for a resurgent Palermo and Carlo Rivetti’s Modena. Could Spezia really drop into the third tier? Just Serie B stuff, init.
You best believe there will be some serious time spent in front of the TV with this on this Christmas. We can, and will, watch Paul, John, George, and Ringo do literally anything for hours and hours. The one outright brilliant, pure thing that the overlords at Disney have managed to birth into the world. Enough for a yearly subscription.
Amid the ‘dirty subs’, eight-quid pints, and generational wealth, Algerian Coffee Stores is a genuinely amazing place slap bang in the middle of Soho. A coffee lover will simply adore this.
Rest in power, Martin Parr.
It was an absolute joy to have Felix White appear on the My Beautiful Game podcast this year. During that appearance, he told us all about this book. For it, Felix went to a game in every single round of the FA Cup. A journey that started in Penrith and ended at Wembley, with the hardest-working men in show business impeccably observing every wrinkle of the match-going experience along the way.
Joel Golby is the funniest man we know. That is a fact. Another fact? Joel’s second book, Four Stars, is one of the funniest books you will ever read. From being trapped in the public loos at Spitalfields market to pub-table politics, saying the exact wrong things to the wrong person at a house party, brutalising Tim Lovejoy, and providing detailed instructions on how to do the perfect load of washing. One million stars.
We’ve all got them (shoes). We all need to protect them (also shoes).
Four generations of the same family have kept this papelaria running for over a century now. Pages so soft they will cause a semi-orgasmic shiver to pass through you once you put pen to paper. FOR GOD’S SAKE, PUT THAT BIRO AWAY AND GET YOURSELF A PROPER PIECE OF EQUIPMENT!
After two years away, Sports Interactive are ready to take over your every waking minute again. The new match engine looks better, apparently, but you’re a 2D guy anyway aren’t you?
1000 pieces of wonky World Cup doodling from the Michelangelos of ham-fisted caricature. A selection of legends and iconic moments from every World Cup since 1930, all rendered in No Score Draws inimitable style. That’s Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, and Christmas afternoon sorted then.
A football book store that does gift cards? We’ll leave you to it.
Counter Culture is a landmark coffee table book that captures the essence of 25 years of British working-class fashion, written and compiled by Jay Montessori and Brendan Wyatt. It weighs nearly 5kg. Imagine all the knowledge inside. Jeeez.
As visceral as a Roy Keane bollocking. We have seen this film, and you should buy tickets for all your friends and family. And your barber. And the fella from the corner shop.
ART
Can imagine an aged-up Oliver Tate from Richard Ayoade’s coming-of-age masterpiece Submarine having this ironed on to his dinky black duffle coat. God, could watch Submarine again, couldn’t we? And again, and again, and again. Please make more films, Mr Ayoade.
Home Alone is a Christmas movie, yes, but this will look stupendous on your bedroom wall all year round. All hail Zooligan.
You could spend hours browsing Lower Block’s collection of photo zines. In fact, you should do that. Right now, in fact. Think of Port Vale 1993–95 as the GO square on the Monopoly board.
Fratton Park, cloaked in black, floodlight beams hitting cold air and refracting into a hazy cloud of light. Terraced houses jutting in from the corner of the frame. Truly beautiful.
Ten Café Royal books for £2.80 each?! Goodness me, we’re on for a good do.
Matt insisted we put this in. Asad kept crying and wringing his hands about it not really being art, but he was duly overruled. If a Scooby-Doo-sized sandwich isn’t art, then what, pray tell, is??
Matt insisted we put this in, too. No objections noted, of course, because this really is a work of art. Henry is about to ask you if you’ve got Snapchat or not, and heads will roll if he doesn’t get an answer.
TAT
This is a shameless Joel Golby rip-off. This is what he says:
Figure out what season they were in when they were 10, and buy them a shiny Merlin sticker of the club crest and maybe some assorted player portraits from that year. I have one of these on my laptop, and it’s sick. Sometimes you can get every sticker for a team that season for like, £16. Here is a sticker of Rory Delap. The right person will go insane for that.
And he’s right, obviously. The right person would go insane for that.
Cash is making a big comeback in 2026. Be prepared.
Hristo Stoichkov is exactly the kind of mad bastard who would set up an online shop selling everything from ground coffee to footy socks with built-in card holders to leather bags, key chains and more. But it’s the most magical time of the year, and it wouldn’t be magic without this very special vintage from Hristo’s cellars, born from, and we quote, “the secret passion of the legend, born from the years spent in the magnetic Sakar. Hristo carries out the strict selection of grapes together with our agronomists, he himself selects the most sophisticated French barrels for fermentation and ageing, and the blending and bottling is carried out by him himself, in a team with the cellar’s chief oenologist.”
As we said, a profoundly intense man. But brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Can you imagine a better stocking filler than a big hand-painted Alstonia wood doorstopper with the likeness of R9, Zizou, Pirlo and more? The MUNDIAL Wedgies are forever.
THINGS TO DO
Matt very passionately argued that we put this in as well. He claims, “This is like the FA Trophy of women’s professional wrestling,” and you just can’t argue with that, can you?
NORTH WEST COUNTIES LEAGUE GROUNDHOP
Seven games in three days. Seven games in three days. Seven games in three days. Seven games in three days. Seven games in three days. Seven games in three days!!!!!
Big haircuts, bigger dreams. This design museum exhibition charts the history and influence of one of the greatest clubs in British history. Blitz helped launch the careers of Spandau Ballet, Boy George and more, and this show transports you right back to its glitter-strewn heyday, complete with flyers, furniture, clothing, instruments and a creative re-interpretation of the club’s interiors, complete with bar and dancefloor. Put those leather chaps on and let’s get a groove on, baby.
PRINCE CHARLES LIFETIME CINEMA
What could be better than giving the person you love most in the world a lifetime membership to London’s greatest cinema, for SIXTY British Pounds? Well, it’s using that lifetime membership to watch Heat as many times as the Prince Charles can screen it. Asad is up to 12 this year, last we counted, and has run out of friends who will go with him. Run out of friends, full stop, really. Get the membership.
Have you been yet? If you haven’t, it’s time to change that. The Black in the Game exhibition, co-curated by Brian Deane, Hope Powell and Nikita Parris, among others, is closing soon, you see. Pop into The Peveril of the Peak afterwards for a pint. Lovely.
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