A team perhaps forgotten about in the footballing world, but not in the football shirt world and certainly not in my world.

Success has been few and far between for Die Löwen (The Lions) in recent years, with just a Bavarian Cup to celebrate within the past three years, which merely qualified them for the actual German Cup.

Most of their success came about in the late 60s and 70s as Die Blauen (The Blues) were able to brag about a DFB-Pokal win in the 1963/64 season and then Bundesliga success in 1965/66. Since then there’s been a flurry of relegations and promotions as they now find themselves in the third tier of German football. They went from locking horns with German giants Borussia Dortmund in the 60s to facing their second team, Borussia Dortmund II, in the current season. A fall from grace.

Their demise has led to them being forgotten about in the footballing world but that hasn’t stopped me from loving the Weiß und Blau (white and blue) of 1860. 

In the summer of 2017, a younger me was bored, very bored, and so, opted to start a FIFA career mode. After flicking through dozens of teams to choose from, I came across a black lion standing proudly above the numbers 1860. I hadn’t seen this team before and was instantly intrigued. 

Fast forward a few more years and I’m playing with them on my latest Football Manager save and am quickly providing the other side of Munich something to cheer about. The ‘you wash and I’ll dry’ strike partnership of Lakenmacher and Vrenezi tore the 3.Liga up in an instant. The few 1860 fans that came to watch us were having flashbacks of those couple of years where Rudi Völler donned the blue and white stripes. It was magical. As I ventured into the world of football shirts just a few years ago, I quickly realised how loved 1860 München were. I thought it was just me that loved the less successful side of Munich, but no, there’s hundreds of us. I quickly made it an aim to get my hands on the 1996/97 home shirt of theirs as it was somewhat iconic in my eyes (and quite a successful season for them considering they didn’t get relegated). And I can now proudly say that I’ve achieved that. As I was walking through Glasgow a few months ago, white and blue stripes hit the corner of my eye from afar. A quick turn of the head revealed my dream shirt perched at the end of a rail in a vintage clothes shop. A little bit of bartering with the shopkeeper and I had secured my shirt. It goes rather nicely with my 90s 1860 Nike fleece and early 2000s Kappa quarter zip – who doesn’t love a jacket, ey? 

For the weekly match going fans of 1860 München, there isn’t much to cheer about these days. But for those of us who admire the polyester in which they have played in, there is (or for those virtual fans that attended the 24/25 season in my football manager save, count yourselves lucky, you witnessed history.

(By @Ptolemy04 on X/Twitter)