England 97-99: 

Custom Sculpts: 

Kit Usage:
 

Home Kit
First worn: 12th February 1997 against Italy (1:0 loss)
Last worn: 10th February 1999 against France (2:0 loss)
No of times worn: 22 (includes white short variation worn against Argentina on 30th June 1998)
Wins/draws/losses: 13/3/6
Win percentage: 59.09%

Away Kit
First worn: 10th June 1997 against Brazil (1:0 loss)
Last worn: 5th June 1999 against Sweden (0:0 draw)
No of times worn: 8 (includes 2 games played by England B squad)
Wins/draws/losses: 3/2/3
Win percentage: 37.50%

Last Worn to Italy. In total, England played 21 games wearing this shirt with the away kit used only a total of 4 times. The home kit was last worn in a friendly match v France on 10th Febraury 1999, in which England loss 2:0.  home and away kits were last worn in the Euro 96 Tournament, the home shirt last being worn against Spain and the away kit worn in the semi-finals against Germany. A total of 44 players played for England during this time. Of all the players selected by Corinthian, they only missed 8 players - not bad all in all but who were the missing 8? Most could name the missing 3 that actually made it into the Euro 96 squad; Gareth Southgate, Sol Campbell and Phil Neville. The other 5 were; Andy Hinchcliffe, David Beckham, Colin Cooper. Jason Wilcox and Ugo Ehiogu. David Beckham, Colin Cooper and Jason Wilcox all had England Euro 96 masters created with Cooper and Wilcox head sculpts and poses differing from their released club versions.

 

In total Corinthian produced a total of 40 players, 39 produced in this kit (taking away manager, Terry Venables). So if they missed out on 8 players, that would take the total to 47 but only 44 players were actually picked to play in this kit. So that leaves three players produced that didn't make the line-up in real life; David James, Neil Ruddock and John Solako being the odd one's out. Technically, John Solako did wear this kit but only for England U21's. So on what merit were James and Ruddock picked? Well, both had played in the England B squad as late as December 1994. Given Corinthian had began making the England players in this period it's easy to see why they would think that it was highly likely that James and Ruddock would be in with a shout of making the full squad. They actually also could have selected Kevin Pressman, Nigel Martyn, Paul Parker, John Beresford, Steve Bould, Ruel Fox, Kevin Richardson, Chris Bart-Williams, Alan Stubbs, Chris Sutton, Paul Merson, Dean Holdsworth, Chris Armstrong and finally, (if he was released)Nicky Summerbee.

Achievements:

Euro 96: Semi Finals (6-5 penalty loss to Germany 1:1 AET) 


Make & Sponsor: England's kit was supplied by Umbro. The kit was very well replicated and a good amount of effort was put in to try to capture all the detail. The v-neck was quite a unique design and although Corinthian got the design spec right (with all the colours in the right place) the finished effect was slightly off and only replicates the design on certain figures either due to their different poses or the paint work performed by the factory painters. "Umbro" is also Tampo printed above the badge. Only three other teams from The Headliners range had their kit supplier Tampo printed on the shirts. Norway and the Scotland (Tetley Tea Version) also had "Umbro" printed and the French national squad who had "Adidas" present. The "Umbro" and England badge is quite prominent on the front of the shirt and could have been scaled down. The socks are really the only thing majorly off. They were the classic Umbro design with the diamonds between two thin lines. I think Corinthian would have been better off doing two thin horizontral stripes rather than one bulk navy blue stripe which would have kept white as the dominant colour.

Rating: 9/10

Pack Releases:

Single Blisters: All 40 players were available via single blister purchase

4 Packs:
E40: Seaman, Barmby, Beardsley, Ferdinand
E41: Barton, Ince, Shearer, Anderton
E42: Adams, Pearce, Le Tissier, Cole
E43: Pallister, Sherringham, Platt, Wright
E45: Collymore, Le Saux, Walker, Jones
E46: Neville, Batty, Howey, Barnes
E47: Ruddock, Sherwood, Unsworth, Wise
E48: Solako, Scales, James, Venison
 

12 Pack:
E60: Barmby, Anderton, Cole, Sheringham, Shearer, Barton, Pearce, Platt, Beardsley, Le Tissier, Adams, Seaman
E64: Venables, Collymore, Gascoigne, Le Saux, Howey, Sherwood, Barnes, Ruddock, Jones, Walker, Wise, Neville

14 Pack:
E62: Barmby, Anderton, Cole, Sheringham, Shearer, Barton, Pearce, Ince, Platt, Beardsley, Pallister, Wright, Adams, Seaman
E66: