Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Badge of the Day #40 (Sparta Praha)




With reference to yesterday’s post, & its rigorous one-club supporting philosophy as applied to the city of Istanbul, today’s example from the football pin badge collection represents Sparta Praha - &, as it were, the other side of the coin - who are one of but four teams from Prague to inspire a certain affection, albeit of subtly varying degrees (& of course, we also have the ‘Ostalgie’ for the recently-discovered former Lokomotiva Praha to factor-in now, too).

There must be something in the air of those great east-central European capitals, the romantic aspect of them or the idea(l) of them, but, again, the very name of Sparta Praha, & their dark, wine-red shirts, seduced from early encounter & has resonated since, always hoping that they will emerge victorious from a European match (unless playing against a more-favourite team, of course, when at least a thrillingly close-fought match is to be desired) & be at the forefront of the domestic competitions, which they often are & historically have been.

To the badge itself, which, as can be appreciated, is a classy little number, another object of desire, representing a certain vintage of the club’s crest, with its red star encircled within the dark blue band upon which sits the proud native name of ‘AC Sparta Praha’ in gold: nice.

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