Champions League kits 2022-23: ranking every home and away shirt from worst to best

Home: 5/10

In a recurring theme this season, AC Milan have combined great stripes with an unneeded block across the neckline. Rather than the curve used by Inter or Barcelona, this one is a firm, straight line, cutting the red and black stripes off just as they get going.

Away: 4/10

The white base and red and black trim are all great, but the away shirt’s overall theme and design lets it down. The seven stripes don’t quite work, stopping abruptly towards the edge of the shirt without becoming hoops around it. It also bears a similarity to PUMA’s 2022-21 third shirts, which absolutely everyone hated.

Total: 9/20

Home: 7/10

Sporting Lisbon can’t go far wrong with their green and white hoops, one of European Football’s all time great kits. This year, they’ve managed to further improve the design with the introduction of slightly thinner lines around the traditional thick stripes.

Away: 3/10

If the home kit is an improvement on a classic, the away shirt is a sign of how quickly it can all go wrong. The black base is covered in volt details – including gradient hoops that don’t quite make it round the shirt – and the Nike swoosh, collar and sleeve cuffs.

Total: 10/20

Home: 4/10

Viktoria Plzen qualified after beating Qarabag FK, but that’s where the good news ends for the Czech team. Their red and blue shirt features a massive diagonal stripe – which makes the whole thing look like Wolverine has had a swipe at it – before it then peters out in a gradient finish. It’s a swing and a miss from Plzen.

Away: 6/10
The Czech club have somehow managed to avoid wearing their away shirt once in the Champions League season, although according to their website it’s the same as last season. The base is a darker shade of blue, while a red and blue side stripe – in a worn effect, for some reason – gives the whole thing the impression of a Crystal Palace training kit.

Total: 10/20

Home: 5/10

The fact that Napoli kits are designed by Giorgio Armani – through the EA7 line – would potentially gain them extra points if the quality hadn’t been so poor. In the 2021-22 season, fans of the club complained about the quality of the kits, but the club and brand claim to have addressed that for 2022-23. The shirt itself features a light blue base with a nice darker gradient pattern down each sleeve. It’s let down by the double sponsor’s logo, although in the Champions League only Lete will be present.

Away: 5/10

Napoli and EA7 use the same template for the away shirt. The majority of the shirt is white – complete with a subtle graphic inspired by the Napoli crest – while the gradient stripes on each sleeve also return. This time, they come in a lighter blue palette, referencing the club’s traditional colours.

Total: 10/20

Home: 6/10

Liverpool home shirts should be plain red, and this season’s is plain red – save the white crest and sponsor’s logo. It’s easy to see it as a little bit boring, and it feels like something is missing from the collar, but it's a safe-if-unspectacular home kit from last season’s Champions League finalists.

Away: 4/10

The away kit takes a different approach, with the standard and plain design replaced by a confused graphic that is apparently inspired by Liverpool’s role in the world of ‘90s dance music. It’s nice to see the club reference Cream, but the psychedelic design is a bit much.

Total: 10/20

Home: 4/10

RB Leipzig have followed up last year’s bloodstained graphic with another abstract print for their home shirt for 2022-23. The light grey and red graphic covers the entire shirt, making it look a bit like something has been spilled on the shirt, while the massive Red Bull sponsor’s logo is fighting for dominance with this print.

Away: 7/10

The away kit takes a different approach, with an all-over graphic that works a lot better than the home equivalent. The red base is covered in darker detailing, while the club logo and Nike swoosh stands out in white. It’s the first time that Nike have produced a bespoke red kit for Leipzig, and it works.

Total: 11/20

Home: 8/10

Remarkably similar to Manchester City’s home shirt – despite being by Nike, not PUMA, the Spurs kit is another twist on a simple-but-great design. The all white base and navy trim returns, but it’s the addition of bright volt yellow to the collar and sleeves that makes this design more than the sum of its parts.

Away: 3/10

Spurs’ away shirt has almost nothing in common with the home shirt, and suffers because of it. The Nike template and the central-placing of the crest immediately make it look like a training top, while the three colours used – black, “Volt” and “Lapis” blue – only add to the confusion.

Total: 11/20

Home: 5/10

Replacing their traditional vertical stripes with new wavy ones was a bold move for Atletico Madrid, and it was reportedly widely rejected by fans. Sales are rumored to be down 40% since last year as people show their preference for the classic stripes. We can’t say we blame them,

Away: 6/10

Atletico’s away kit is a lot more traditional. The black base is contrasted with two different blue colours – a darker one around the collar and sleeves, and subtle detailing in a lighter shade – to create a strong away shirt. There’s nothing necessarily special about it, but there’s also no real misstep from Nike or the club.

Total: 11/20

Home: 5/10

One of the first major clubs from outside the UK to join Castore’s revolution, Sevilla’s 2022-23 home kit can go down as a near miss. The basics are all there – white shirt, red trim, and a subtle pattern inspired by the ceramics of the region – but the competing colours and logos of each sponsor take away from the design. 

Away: 6/10

The away kit also suffers from an abundance of logos, but this time they’ve all been rendered mostly in white. This creates a coherence across the shirt, allowing the gradient red stripes to rightly receive the focus.

Total: 11/20

Home: 6/10

Porto haven’t messed with their home shirt for 2022-23, keeping it simple and traditional with blue and white stripes. As you’d expect, the width and number of stripes works well, and overall it’s a solid effort from Porto and New Balance.

Away: 5/10

While the home kit arguably loses points for playing it safe, the away kit pushes the boat a bit too far. The bright yellow colour isn’t necessarily bad, but the stripe-style design makes the whole thing look a bit like a Hawaiian shirt.

Total: 11/20

Home: 8/10

Another club participating in Castore’s entry into the Champions League, late-qualifiers Rangers have managed a subtle improvement of their classic blue. The slight red and white trim really adds to the design, while the vintage-inspired checkerboard pattern is also a nice touch.

Away: 4/10

The away is nowhere near as good, though. The white and red trim is elevated to the entire design, most notable through the red diagonal stripe that takes up most of the shirt. The white section is finished with blue detailing – which works – but the red section has a lot to  answer for.

Total: 12/20

Home: 9/10

A rare appearance for Macron in elite European football. Club Brugge’s home kit is a classic design, but it shows how some clubs, and manufacturers have got it wrong. Whereas most striped shirts this season have been forced to stop halfway up the chest due to templates, Macron has allowed the Brugge stripes free reign to keep going and join up with the collar.

Away: 3/10

It’s a different story for the away kit. The shirt has some good features – the same collar as the home shirt, and a black and blue trim on the sleeves – but it's let down by an abstract pattern of blue and black lines in different directions that runs across the white shirt. 

Total: 12/20

Home: 4/10

Barcelona made a couple of changes for their 2022-23 home kit, most noticeably the introduction of a third colour to the blaugrana stripes. The other big change is the curved block across the neck and shoulder, seemingly stopping the stripes in their tracks.

Away: 8/10

The Barcelona away kit shares an inspiration with the home shirt – the 1992 Barcelona Olympics – and the gold colour is an obvious nod to the medals won. The key feature is the shade of gold, which is complemented with hits of navy and a subtle map of Barcelona across the entirity of the shirt.

Total: 12/20

Home: 7/10

Chelsea’s home kit for the 2022-23 season was a subtle tweak on the classic blue – and a welcome break from last season’s headache-inducing design – and its salute to legendary manager Ted Drake adds another touch. The majority of the shirt is Chelsea’s classic royal blue, while the collar introduces a lion motif inspired by Drake’s decision to move away from the club’s Chelsea Pensioner as manager in the ‘50s.

Away: 5/10

It took Chelsea a long time to reveal their away shirt, and it wasn’t worth the wait. The lion graphic returns from the home kit, this time not in a subtle collar detail but in five hoops around the white base. A small dark blue trim finishes the design, while the shirt gets an extra point for the link back to the home kit, something a couple of other teams could learn from.

Total: 12/10

Home: 6/10

The big issue with Marseille’s home shirt isn’t the kit itself – it’s a solid white and blue number, how wrong can you go? – but the colours used. Rather than the classic white blue that people know, and love, PUMA and Marseille have gone for a darker shade that doesn’t hit the spot in the same way.

Away: 6/10

The much-missed light blue returns for the away kit, appearing as a trim on the sleeves and for the shirt’s detailing. The use of it on the away kit, where it is used alongside a dark blue base, just highlights how good it would look alongside the white of the home kit.

Total: 12/20

Home: 6/10

A second Red Bull entry on the list, Salzburg’s home shirt also suffers from the huge Red Bull logo on its chest. Unlike the Leipzig kit, though, there’s no distracting pattern on the shirt, instead just a series of tonal grey chevrons allowing the sponsor/owner’s logo the spotlight. That’s not necessarily a good thing.

Away: 6/10

The Red Bull logo takes up most of the away shirt as well, but that’s a given by this point. The other stand out feature of the shirt is the sleeve detailing. The navy shirt is adorned with a lighter blue wavy pattern along each sleeve, which helps to elevate the shirt somewhat. Take away the huge Red Bull logo, and the club crest, and you’d have a perfectly acceptable France kit.

Total: 12/20

Home: 6/10

Nike’s 2022-23 template makes another unfortunate return on PSG’s home shirt, with a navy blue curved stripe cutting off the Hechter stripe. The stripe itself is an inversion of the traditional design, and is a welcome return after being left off the 2021-22 kit entirely.

Away: 7/10

The Hechter stripe gets another rework for the away shirt, part of the club’s ongoing Jordan Brand collaboration. This time, it’s a thin gradient stripe, running in black up the middle of the grey shirt, which takes its colours from the Parc des Princes stadium.

Total: 13/20

Home: 8/10

FC Copenhagen’s home kit is simple and effective. As a slight tweak on their traditional white base with blue detailing, they’ve added thin blue pin stripes running vertically down the shirt. The blue returns across all logos and branding, including the adidas Three Stripes.

Away: 5/10

The third club to qualify for the Champions League who will, in some form, be wearing a black and blue kit. FC Copenhagen’s is just absolutely bang average. The black shoulders would be better if they were blue, but otherwise it’s straight-down-the-middle from the Danish champions.

Total: 13/20

Home: 8/10

Israeli club Maccabi Haifa are another club to have given their green and white kit a rework for the 2022-23 season. This design features a new take on vertical stripes, made up off different widths and different alignments, to create an optical illusion-style shirt. It’s all finished off with dark green sleeves and a white trim.

Away: 6/10

Throughout their Champions League qualifying campaign, Maccabi Haifa wore last season’s away kit. It’s a pretty solid shirt – black base with a grey pattern on the sleeves – but its pretty underwhelming when held up next to this season’s optical illusion stripes. 

Total: 14/20

Home: 6/10

Dortmund’s 2022-23 home kit is straight down the middle, no messing around this year. The yellow and black stripes take centre stage, but they stop too short, not quite reaching the edge, while a special yellow gap has been left for the sponsor’s logo. Both touches knock a point or two off what would’ve been a strong home contender.

Away: 8/10

The away kit is less typical, though, as Dortmund opt for a half-and-half design. One half of the shirt is solid black, while the second features a tonal pattern of different-sized squares which reference the flags and banners at the Signal Iduna Park fortress. A smart yellow trim links it back to the club’s home colours.

Total: 14/20

Home: 7/10

There’s no messing around with Dinamo Zagreb’s home shirt. It comes in the club’s classic blue and is finished with white detailing, so far, so traditional. The stand-out feature though, is the addition of a gold trim as a nod to the club’s 1982 Golden Generation.

Away: 8/10

The club’s away shirt manages to flip those colours – a white base and blue detailing – while also managing to create a classic. Two different shades of blue, one light and one dark, appear as chevrons across the shirt, forming an all-over pattern that’ll help the Croatian club stand out on their Champions League adventures.

Total: 15/20

Home: 8/10

Another club to sign up with Castore, Leverkusen have replaced their red and black colours with new horizontal red stripes. The darker stripes are made up of soundwaves – taken from the Leverkusen Allez chant – and the shirt is finished with black and white collar and cuffs. Castore’s kits have been hit and miss this season, just look at Sevilla’s, but this is proof that the brand deserves its place at the top end of European football.

Away: 7/10

Leverkusen’s forgotten black returns for the home kit, which is covered in an abstract design. The tonal pattern is, apparently, a reference to the flags flown in the club’s Nordkurve stand, making it similar to the Dortmund away shirt thematically. The collar and cuffs return from the home shirt, this time finished in black and white.

Total: 15/20

Home: 7/10

Another example of how you can take a classic European shirt and give it a fitting twist. Benfica’s signature red is accentuated through a tonal pinstripe design – apparently in tribute to Lisbon’s Ponte de 25 Abril bridge – while the white trim helps bring the whole thing together.

Away: 8/10

Benfica doesn’t have a lot in common with Arsenal, maybe it’s only Nuno Tavares. But the Portuguese club’s away shirt borrows heavily from Arsenal’s iconic bruised banana design. Whatever the reason is for the tribute, it’s still a sensational design and deserves its place in the Champions League.

Total: 15/20

Home: 7/10

Rumours have circulated of a potential Shakhtar Donetsk 2022-23 home kit, but the Ukrainain club has kicked off the new season in a carry over from last season. The PUMA shirt comes in the club’s orange, with black pinstripes and alternating orange stripes displaying a subtle pattern. 

Away: 8/10

The same template is used for the away kit – provided they also use that for the 2022-23 season – but the colours have been reversed. The black stripes alternate with a similar pattern, this time described as “Coal” as a nod to the club’s Miner’s nickname. And the thin orange pinstripes stand out against the dark base.

Total: 15/20

Home: 8/10

Manchester City’s home shirt shows how a tiny addition can make a big difference to an otherwise simple kit. The majority of the shirt is the expected sky blue, but the addition of a burgundy and white trim to the collar and sleeves adds an extra layer and turns a simple kit into something altogether better.

Away: 7/10

The club has gone for a red and black away shirt for the first time since the unforgettable 2011-12 season. The design follows the same trend as the home shirt with a tweak on the classic as diagonal stripes replace vertical. The yellow detailing, covering the crest and sponsor, might be unexpected, but even that helps to elevate the away shirt. 

Total: 15/20

Home: 7/10

Why mess with a classic when a classic is this good? Ajax’s home kits are some of the most recognizable, and surprisingly the club has stuck with the white shirt and thick red stripe for the 2022-23 season. The small adornments – including the thin stripe around the collar and the sleeves – all add to the overall aesthetic.

Away: 8/10

While Ajax’s home shirt sticks to a tried and tested formula, the away kit sees the club take a slightly different approach. Its navy base is pretty standard, but the detailing around the neckline and sleeves takes it to another level, with a repeated red and gold cross pattern running across both.

Total: 15/20

Home: 7/10

The black and blue stripes are pretty simple this time – a lot simpler than last year’s snake skin approach – but Inter Milan have been done dirty by the Nike template used. Once again, there’s a curved block across the shoulders, adding a strange horizontal stripe into the traditional vertical design.

Away: 9/10

When Inter Milan was founded, they described themselves as “brothers of the world,” and this global outlook is the inspiration for their unbelievable away shirt. The colour palette is described as “Light Aqua,” which makes up an all-over graphic of a map of the world. The badge, as you’d expect, lies on the city of Milan.

Total: 16/20

Home: 7/10

The black and white stripes of the Old Lady return, although they’ve been given a slight tweak for 2022-23. Each stripe is now constructed from a pattern of triangles, apparently in reference to the shape of the Allianz Stadium. Juventus have often tried to reinvent the wheel with their stripes, but this one is the perfect mix of tradition and innovation.

Away: 9/10

The away shirt is even better, in part due to its all-black base and subtle graphic. This graphic, which mixes charcoal with black, is inspired by the stars, and designed in tribute to games played under the night sky. This kit should help Juventus go far on the continent this season.

Total: 16/20

Home: 8/10

Frankfurt’s home kits are unpredictable – they’ve been black and white stripes, red and black stripes and just plain black in recent years – but this year’s is a welcome relief in its simplicity. Nike and the club have designed the kit with a plain white base finished with black detailing. Some things are classics for a reason.

Away: 8/10

Last season’s Europa League winners are due a strong performance in the Champions League if their kits are anything to go by. The away shirt inverts the colours from the home kit, while a graphic pattern across the black base adds a little bit more to the away design.

Total: 16/20

Home: 8/10

Similarly to Sporting Lisbon, Celtic can’t go far wrong with their green and white hoops. The club have managed to improve upon the classic this season through the addition of a darker geometric pattern in each of the hoops. Finishing off the design is silver detailing across the adidas Three Stripes and the star above the crest. It may be Celtic’s first group stage appearance for five years, but this home kit means they’ll make an impression.

Away: 8/10

The home shirt may be a twist on the traditional, but the away shirt is a new classic. The green and white returns, this time in the former of pinstripes that run down a black base. A real stand out detail, though, is the Celtic crest, appearing on a retro inspired shield. The whole design is a nod to the club’s 1992-93 away shirt, which is regarded as one of its best ever.

Total: 16/20

Home: 8/10

Both Bayern Munich’s home and away kits are inspired by their domestic dominance, which they hope will lead to a seventh Champions League win this season. The home shirt sees the addition of horizontal white stripes in different widths – a nice touch – while the special “Serienmeister” badge nods to the 10th consecutive title win.

Away: 8/10

The victorious theme is even more apparent on the away shirt, which comes almost entirely in white. The design is simple and effective, with all of the detailing – including the crest, adidas Three Stripes and sponsors logo – finished in gold to celebrate a decade of dominance in German football.

Total: 16/20

Home: 8/10

The all-white is a certified classic, but Real Madrid have found a small switch to keep it fresh. The addition of a single-button collar helps to take it to a new level, while the addition of lavender detailing helps confirm Real Madrid’s position at the pinnacle of European football… again. 

Away: 9/10

The lavender makes another appearance on Real Madrid’s away shirt, this time taking centre stage. This time, the colour has been transformed into a geometric pattern that runs across the entire shirt, mirroring the diagonal stripe of the club’s badge.

Total: 17/20