Messi, Argentina, and Inishowen’s World Cup connection
Andrew Dolan
A Greencastle man who helped design Argentina’s World Cup winning jersey has been hailed as an inspiration.
Andrew Dolan oversaw the project to design the iconic blue and white jersey, worn by Messi in last month’s final in Qatar.
Dolan is a senior project manager at Adidas where he has worked for the past five years.
He completed his Leaving Cert at Moville Community College in 2009 before going on to study for a degree in science and sports technology at the University of Ulster.
“We’re delighted for him and the success that he’s had,” said Moville CC principal Anthony Doogan.
Mr Doogan said Andrew’s high-profile success is a fine endorsement for Moville Community College, where Andrew studied technology, business and physics for his Leaving Cert.
“It’s a great compliment to whatever training that he got at our school that he’s managed to create something with such international recognition and appeal,” he said.
Andrew described working on the new Argentina jersey as a once in a lifetime opportunity that was a lot of fun.
He said: “I was specifically handling Argentina for this World Cup which was an honour as it was the first international tournament I worked on at Adidas.”
“It comes with a lot of pressure. Everything we do we build with insights, with the local market and the Federation. And with an Argentina jersey you ask everyone how different can you make it each time.”
Each jersey is made with plastic intercepted from coastal towns and beach resorts.
“In terms of the design and the story behind it for me and working with design, it was about tapping into the authentic national DNA. So the blue is as close to the national flag as we could get,” Andrew said.
“We brought in details from the flag as well with the Sol de Mayo as a sign off on the back neck.”
He told the Footballco Podcast how the kit is asymmetrical with the front and back being different which is something the country never had before.
“The front has three blue stripes and the back has four blue stripes. Each one in their own way referring back to the two previous World Cup wins for Argentina in 1978 and 1986,” he said.
Andrew said work began 20 months ago and because of Covid restrictions a lot of work had to be done remotely.
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