Real Madrid Football Shirt Collection - Gabriel Martínez Cruz

Gabriel is a Real Madrid fan who has been collecting shirts since he was 17 years old and puts his love of Los Blancos shirts down to his parents buying him their jerseys when he was a child.

Why Collect Real Madrid Shirts?

I am Real Madrid supporter and have been since I was 8 years old and Real Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League final in what is still one of the most beautiful shirts we have ever played in and with an unforgettable goal.

How Many Shirts Do You Have In Your Collection?

My collection now consists of 198 shirts, they range from my oldest which is from the early 80's to the present day, I have all the homes and nearly all the away, goalkeeper and third shirts too. A number of my shirts are matchworn, match issue, rare one offs and also have a few jackets and souvenirs in there too. I hope to one day have enough to open up my own Real Madrid museum so I can share the collection with fans from all over the world!

What was your first shirt?

The first shirt I got was the 2003-04 Home in long sleeve, it was a birthday present from my parents and that was the current shirt at the time. The first shirt that I bought with my own money was the centenary shirt with Raul on the back, one of my favourite shirts and players of all time!

What is your fvourite shirt?

I think I'll have to answer this with three different shirts and for three different reasons!

For design it would have to be my match issue Keylor Navas shirt from the 2014 World Club Cup. I love the colour and design, there are so many details, too make it even more special the shirt was only ever released in the club shop!

For the meaning I'll pick my Hummel 86-87 shirt, one of my main goals when I began this collection was to get hold of one, the one I have has Butrageño 7 on the back as well.

Finally for the rarity my 1981-82 Goalkeeper shirt is very special to me, it is from Real's first spell with Adidas as their manufacturer. It took me a very long time and a lot of effort to get hold of it but now I have it!

What Is The Shirt That You Don't Have In Your Collection Yet But Would Most Like To Add?

It would have to be a shirt from the Di Stefano era, preferably worn by the man himself! Not many people have shirts from that period and the people who do, as you might have guessed, aren't easily persuaded to part with it.

If I was to pick a more recent shirt it would be the red centenary goalkeeper jersey, it's one of the few shirts that I'm missing from the current Adidas era and I think it's a truly elegant shirt.

Have You Got Any More Interesting Stories?

One of my favourite jerseys is one that I have autographed by one of my favourite ever players, Zinedine Zidane. I tried for a long time to get a shirt signed by him and it wasn't easy! I used to go down to Valdebebas on my days off, one day I saw an Audi leaving the training ground with a bald headed driver so I chased down the car like Usain Bolt screaming as loud as I could, when I got to the car it was him! When I saw him face-to-face I was petrified, I managed to get a picture with him and the shirt signed, what a day!

I believe the best thing to come from my collection still has to be the people I have met through it. I have met a lot of people that I now call my close friends, it doesn't matter where we are from, we still get together to watch big games when we can!

Thanks to Gabriel who has now entered the CFS Collectors Club, if you'd like to see more of his collection check him out on Instagram here

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