When Inter, Milan and Roma were soda cans Blame the shirts made in the 2016-17 season by Nike and adidas

With the World Cup over and Serie A now back on our screens, our eyes can once again feast on some truly unique kits. This season, Napoli has established itself as the queen of quirky match threads, with their Halloween and Christmas edition jerseys, followed by the recently released Saint Valentine’s special. It is not rare to see the partenopei suit up with bizarre graphics, and this approach is seeing increasing popularity among several Serie A teams. Designers are now explicitly tasked with drawing up eye-catching (and sometimes tacky) shirts with motifs that go beyond football, whether it is bats representing Halloween, or reindeer bringing Christmas spirit. And although this trend was popularized very recently, the 2016-2017 Serie A season saw three different cases of this trend, with Inter, Roma, and Milan producing some of the most comically unusual jerseys in Serie A history. These kits did not serve the purpose of promoting a certain festivity, and they may not have had a specific purpose at all. But as time passed, fans realized one thing: the kits looked like Sprite, Fanta, and Coca-Cola cans. 

And finally, AC Milan’s ‘Coca-Cola Zero kit’ made by adidas. Nowadays, the drink usually comes in a red can with black writing, but a few years ago it was the complete opposite: black with sporadic red and white accents. AC Milan’s third kit presented similar features, with a deeply dark green base, white adidas stripes running down from the underarm to the hips, a touch of white sprayed onto the sleeves, and red cuffs. And although the green may not give you ‘Coca-Cola vibes’, it was so dark that comparisons to Coca-Cola Zero cans came pouring in regardless. In an era where simplicity on football kits somewhat still reigned, these jerseys drew a lot of attention to themselves and became Internet meme sensations, and now, 6 years later, can only be remembered with the following label ‘soda kits’.