Thanks to the unusual timing of the 2022 World Cup, the festive build-up took a back seat for a while this year, but that hasn’t deterred football clubs from across Europe’s top leagues cramming their stores full of Christmas knick-knacks.
Central to each collection is the official Christmas sweater, which has become something of an annual tradition in the football realm. Clubs have drummed up a fresh batch of new designs for 2022, but while some of them are the perfect attire to wear while singing carols around the fire, others are pure holiday horrors.
Here is our selection of the very best and, naturally, the very worst festive knitwear on offer in official club stores this holiday season.
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Serie A’s reigning champions Milan have stuck to their Rossoneri club colours for their 2022 Christmas jumper, with a Christmas message emblazoned across the midriff. Fans wishing to fully accessorise can pair the sweater with a matching bobble hat.
With retro details taken from the club’s kits and crests of the past, the Gunners have produced a jumper that is both festive and suave — as Katie McCabe and Martin Odegaard demonstrate here. It’s certainly befitting of a team sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League at Christmas.
Barca keep things simple and classy with a nifty grey sweater, modelled by Mapi Leon, that features a blaugrana pattern all over and a large club crest front and centre.
Benjamin Pavard rocks what Bayern are calling a “Norwegian kitted jumper,” which has been such a hit with fans that it is completely sold out in the club store.
Dortmund’s official Christmas jumper for 2022 is inspired by traditional advent calendars and features an enormous grid of assorted seasonal motifs. Sadly, there isn’t any chocolate hidden behind any of them.
There’s not a lot wrong with
