Few shirts in the world are recognised at first glance like that of Boca Juniors. The deep blue with the yellow horizontal band across the chest is the symbol of an entire neighbourhood, a city and millions of fans. Behind it, though, lies a story that starts with a port, a group of immigrants and a ship that happened to be passing by.

Five friends in the port of Buenos Aires

Club Atlético Boca Juniors was founded on 3 April 1905 in La Boca, the working-class port district of Buenos Aires. Its founders were five young men, sons of Italian immigrants: Esteban Baglietto, Alfredo Scarpatti, Santiago Sana and the brothers Juan and Teodoro Farenga.

At the time La Boca was full of immigrants from Genoa. That is where the club's nickname comes from: "Xeneizes", meaning "Genoese" in the Ligurian dialect. To this day, Boca fans proudly call themselves by that name.

The first shirts: before the blue and gold

For its first two years Boca had no fixed colours. It tried light-coloured shirts, such as white with thin black stripes and later light blue. According to a widespread version, the team lost a match to Nottingham de Almagro, who wore a similar shirt, and that pushed it to look for something more distinctive.

The Swedish ship that made history

In 1907, unable to agree, the club's members took a decision that could only happen in football. At the suggestion of president Juan Rafael Brichetto, they decided to go to the port and adopt the colours of the flag of the first ship to come in.

The ship was Swedish. And so the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag became Boca's colours forever, the "azul y oro", blue and gold, as the fans call it. Most sources identify the ship as the freighter "Drottning Sophia", although there is also a version that speaks of the "Princessan Ingeborg".

It is worth saying that the story has something of a legend about it. No documents from 1907 survive that record it, and it began to spread widely in the 1930s. That has not made it any less loved. On the contrary, it is now part of the club's identity.

The birth of the classic shirt

The colours were decided in 1907, but the design needed a little longer to take its final form. In 1913 the blue shirt with the yellow horizontal band across the chest was established, the kit Boca still wears today.

Since then, the shirt has changed manufacturers, fabrics, sponsors and details countless times. The colours, however, have stayed the same for more than a century. Even the stars on the crest, added in 1970, recall the flag of the Swedish shipping company, which also had a yellow star.

The shirt of legends

In this shirt Boca became one of the biggest clubs in the Americas, with six Copa Libertadores and three Intercontinental Cups. Diego Maradona wore it, leading the team to the 1981 title, and the players wear it every week in front of the legendary "Bombonera", the stadium opened in 1940.

The link with Sweden was never forgotten. In 2024, on the club's 119th anniversary, Boca released a third shirt inspired by the Swedish flag, with the yellow cross on a dark blue background.

A piece of history for your collection

The Boca Juniors shirt is not just a football kit. It is the story of immigrants who built something of their own, a chance encounter with a ship and a century of passion. That is why it is one of the most loved shirts among collectors all over the world.

See our Boca Juniors jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: La Bombonera in Buenos Aires – Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.