In a way, breathtakingly simple; the black collar, the badge placement. In another way, gloriously detailed, with its subtle background inspired by the mosaics and architecture of the Renaissance.

Giorgio Chiellini looked great in it, sure, but you can just picture Christopher Columbus setting sail from Spain in this shirt, or Leonardo Da Vinci finishing the Mona Lisa, turning up the collar and quietly whispering: ”Bella.”

Puma actually produced three kits of astonishing beauty for the tournament, with the white away kit and Gianluigi Donnarumma’s yellow goalkeeper strip bringing the logos to the centre above the word ’Italia’ flanked by green and red bars. The away shirt is a garment fit to be married in.

This screams 1980s, it also screams magnifique and is probably the greatest kit France have ever produced, narrowly beating their 1998 World Cup-winning version (a faithful rip-off of this very design).

France won the 1984 Euros displaying creative flair and panache and, without all going all pretentious and Hackney Wick on you, this kit perfectly mirrors that.

Stare at it for five seconds and, if you are of a certain age, you will begin to hear these words…

”Tigana, two to his right and Platini through the middle, Tigana again, Tigana…Tigana…Platini…GOAL!!!!! Platini for France, with a minute to go!”

The Adidas kit was barely witnessed on British TV screens as they only screened two live matches from these Euros (because no home nations were among the eight competing sides). John Motson’s iconic commentary was shown on highlights, though.

It was also only worn 14 times by France, the same number of episodes made of the UK version of The Office. Perfection should not be overcooked.

Talking of gorgeous kits that were rarely worn by a European Championship-winning team…

Or in this case, specifically by one player, Peter Schmeichel, who wore this unique goalkeeper kit just once during Euro 92 — in the final.

For the group stage and for the semi-final against the Netherlands, in which Schmeichel crucially saved from Marco van Basten in a penalty shootout, he was wearing Hummel’s template blue and black ’keeper kit.

For the 2-0 win over Germany in the final though, Schmeichel was resplendent in this vibrant, striking jersey complete with pentagon mesh, all of which made him a human version of Connect 4.

A masterpiece.

Croatia had only been making kits for six years after secession from Yugoslavia. Some early efforts were mainly red, a bit splodgy and yes, there were some red and white check efforts.

Then, in 1996, arrived this doozy from Lotto.

We are all accustomed to the red and white checkered design now, but this was the infancy of Croatia permanently using it (the previous kit had been red with white trim) and you can give it no greater testament than the fact the vast majority of football fans around the world will associate red and white checks with Croatia.

Even just the chequered concept full-stop felt revolutionary in international kit design at the time. And in Croatia’s first-ever tournament, too.

It helped that their team were damn good: Zvonimir Boban, Davor Suker, Alen Boksic, et al. The only downside of this story is that Suker’s iconic chip over Schmeichel was performed in the white away kit.

Some consider this to be the greatest football shirt of all time, let alone the best international top and let alone the best from a European Championship.

Again, it helps that the Dutch won the 1988 Euros in what was then West Germany, it helps that Van Basten did that with his right foot in the damn final, when scoring one of football’s most revered goals of all time, but it also helps that the shirt is genuinely perfect.

The design felt new at the time and still looks modern now. And as a package, with the shirt offset against white shorts (the darker orange shorts they had to wear for the final were horribly clunky) looks pretty perfect.

Hipsters will rage at this decision but, honestly, for all your talk of its pure design and its exalted central lettering, let’s get right down to brass tacks here; some back-office lackey in the Kremlin’s propaganda department said they should make the Soviet letters as big as possible so the world (OK, a bit of Europe) would know how good they are at football.

Lev Yashin’s all-black ’keeper kit looks real nice, I will give you that, but the red home top is proper Billy-basic, clunky and looks like something a child could have designed.

Not all Euros winners wear an amazing kit, as this proves.

(Editor’s note: we have updated the photo after a slight kit malfunction…)

This might be an overreaction, but the instant reaction is: “Croatia, what have you done?”

As previously discussed, Croatia have sported their famous chequered design for almost 30 years now. Slight variations have been necessary, of course, with some more successful than others. They had some invasive blue trim down the shirt in 2002 which wasn’t ideal, but they’ve also had some nice red-sleeve alternatives while, in 2022, the partial checks, partial clean-white, freestyle design wasn’t a bad effort.

It’s difficult to keep the look fresh while remaining faithful to traditions, that’s understandable. But Luka Modric’s final international appearance could be in… this? Nike, are you for real? A shirt that looks like it might have been worn by the Winchester flower-arranging team when they beat Harrow by 12 sore bottoms to one?

Oh, Croatia.

Hmmm. OK. Where to begin?

Adidas have actually made something really, really nice for Germany’s home kit this year, a modern take on their 1994 shirt, with fading red, yellow and black on the shoulders.

Presumably they spent 99 per cent of their ”Germany 2024 European Championship kit planning” meeting on the home design, because the away kit – with the emphasis on kit because the whole thing needs to be seen in context with the shorts and socks too – is hideous.

Adidas say it is a ”vibrant colour scheme inspired by the digital world of the metaverse” —  which makes it even worse.

Imagine Germany winning their home Euros in this. Imagine a Croatia v Germany final and Croatia are drawn as the home team. Yep, you’ll sleep with the lights on tonight.

Adidas kit designer 1: ”Right, what we thinking for Spain’s away kit this year?”

Adidas kit designer 2: ”A messy conglomerate of nonsensical random triangles splurged over a white background?”

Adidas kit designer 1: ”I love it! But hang on, what colour are these triangles? Maybe a nice bright yellow to reflect the Spanish flag?”

Adidas kit designer 2: ”How about a dull yellow, mixed in with reds. You know, to resemble something you’d throw up at 3am after a heavy night out and a kebab?”

Adidas kit designer 1: ”Yes! Perfect. Damn, we’re good.”

Like Schmeichel, David Seaman only had to wear this once during the Euros. He was surely grateful.

It is difficult to imagine the inspiration for this monstrosity.

Perhaps a three-year-old child’s painting, perhaps the opening credits to kids’ TV drama Byker Grove, but whatever the reasoning, you will find neither sense nor logic in what you see here.

Combining red with yellow, purple and lime green, repeating the words ’football association’ in black lettering, sort of putting the word England somewhere, a huge random backwards E… none of it fits with any world or society I’d want to live in.

Euro 96 broke the hearts of millions. But if we look at England’s line-up that day, the outfield players in grey, Seaman playing for Starburst FC, we should be glad we lost.