The Good, The Bad, The WTF

US Boulogne Côte d'Opale will be the new kids on the block in Ligue 1 next season. I mean that literally. Founded in 1898, the club earned promotion to France's top level for the first time after edging out Strasbourg for the third and final promotion spot out of Ligue 2.

So, why are they here? Because they are bringing some of the worst shirts imaginable up with them, that's why.

The first thing that strikes me about Boulogne is the rather odd sight of not one, but two Madagascar flags on their roster. Of the 50 or so players listed on Wikipedia as recent call ups for Madagascar, Boulogne's players--Faneva Andriastima and Paulin Voavy--are two of the three players cited who play for any European club. Let's just say they are a novelty.

Not a novelty--the shirt below. Unfortunately, it was seen way too much.

Best I can figure, since I am not a Francophone (nor did I actually look too hard), this was the away shirt during last season's highly successful Ligue 2 campaign. Considering that the home shirt was a much more palatable red and black striped shirt, I can guess that pulling out this week's effort was met with a certain amount of disdain by the fashion conscious French. The Malagasy contingent probably did not care as much.

I guess, though, that we as footie fans should consider ourselves lucky. For there is a Rugby squad in France that has a history of odd shirt choices. And when they go pink, whether it's with flowers, lightning bolts, a Warhol print or tie-dye, it is always worse than the Boulogne shirt.

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