PUMA ARGENTINA

78 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

In the summer of 1978 I was 12 years old and the most important things in life were football, music and clothes. Almost 30 years later and nothing has changed. To anyone growing up in urban Britain during that year, the Argentinean World Cup has remained ingrained on our collective memory.

We all wanted to be Mario Kempes, the long-haired striker who was the tournament’s top scorer. We ripped up newspapers into ribbons and threw them at our tiny local grounds in a pathetic imitation of the Estadio Monumental, whilst chanting Ar-gen-tina!‚ And we kidded ourselves that, just by poring over the catalogues of sportswear labels, we too could become blessed with the grace, ferocity, fl air and good looks of Kempes and his exotic compatriots.

Make no mistake, after 78 Argentina had replaced Brazil as South America’s golden boys (or should that be silver?) and these were the players we worshipped; Kempes, Passarella, Tarantini, Larossa, Ardiles, Houseman. Even their shifty looking manager, Cesar Menotti was cool in a Rigsby meets Carlos The Jackal kinda way. No wonder then, that Puma sought to pay homage to the team whose feet they sponsored.

Puma Argentina (and to a lesser extent the harder to get hold of Menotti) became must-have items on the feet on many a fashion-conscious football fan on Merseyside; the classic shape, design and texture of the shoe marking out a clear boundary between the new‚ look of the terraces and the old school‚ bootboy fraternity.

PIC :: CESAR MENOTTI