Marcel Desailly

Three Chelsea seasons, and nothing before them

Seventeen Desailly items are listed. Fifteen are Chelsea: fourteen copies of the 1999-01 home shirt printed Desailly #6, plus one 1998-00 away shirt with the same print. Desailly joined Chelsea from Milan in 1998 for £4.6 million and stayed until the end of the 2003-04 season, so this selection covers only the opening half of his six years at Stamford Bridge. Nothing from the later Chelsea kits appears, and nothing at all from Nantes, Marseille or Milan; the two Champions League medals of his career came with the last two of those clubs.

The two France shirts are something else

The remaining pair are France home shirts from 1998-00 carrying the inscription ‘Pour Toi Marcel Desailly’. Unlike the Chelsea shirts, the listings give them no squad number, so read the description before ordering if you are after a playing shirt. Desailly made 116 appearances for France between 1993 and 2004, was sent off in the 1998 World Cup final that France won 3-0 against Brazil, and won Euro 2000.

Condition and sizing

Most of the Chelsea shirts are graded 8/10 or 9/10; two sit at 6/10 and one at 10/10. Four of the fifteen are children’s sizes, marked Y or 15-16 years, which is easy to miss in a list where the other sizes run from medium to XXL. The grade describes wear on fabric and print, not whether a shirt more than twenty years old can still be worn.