Retro Granit Xhaka Shirt – Captain, Leader, Survivor

Granit Xhaka's journey began in Basel, where he broke into the senior squad as a 17-year-old and lifted the Swiss Super League title in 2010 and 2011 before his move to Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2012. At Gladbach, under coaches Lucien Favre and André Schubert, he matured into one of the Bundesliga's most complete deep-lying midfielders, captaining the club by his early twenties and earning a then-club-record transfer to Arsenal in 2016. His seven years in north London were turbulent and unforgettable. He captained the Gunners to an FA Cup final, fell out spectacularly with the home supporters in October 2019 after ripping off the armband against Crystal Palace, and appeared finished at the club. Instead, under Mikel Arteta, Xhaka reinvented himself as an advanced left-eight, scored crucial goals during the 2022-23 title challenge, and left Arsenal with the love of the same fans who once jeered him. In 2023 he joined Bayer Leverkusen and immediately became the midfield conductor of Xabi Alonso's unbeaten Bundesliga-winning side of 2023-24, finally lifting a top-five European league title. He has been a mainstay of the Switzerland national team since 2011, captaining them at multiple World Cups and European Championships, and has represented his country over one hundred times. Controversial, combustible, but utterly indispensable, Xhaka's career has been defined by setbacks answered with silverware.

Xhaka's career reads like a who's who of modern European football. At Basel he played alongside Xherdan Shaqiri, his lifelong friend and Switzerland teammate, forming a partnership that would define a generation of Swiss football. At Gladbach he was guided by Lucien Favre and partnered Christoph Kramer and Mahmoud Dahoud in one of the Bundesliga's most press-resistant midfields. His Arsenal years brought partnerships with Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Özil and later Thomas Partey and Martin Ødegaard, the Norwegian captain who helped unlock Xhaka's attacking potential under Mikel Arteta. Managers Arsène Wenger, Unai Emery and Arteta all trusted him with the armband despite external criticism. In Leverkusen, Xabi Alonso became arguably the most important figure in his career, unleashing him alongside Exequiel Palacios and Florian Wirtz in a midfield that went a full Bundesliga season unbeaten. For Switzerland, he has formed an iron axis with goalkeeper Yann Sommer, defender Manuel Akanji and his younger brother Taulant Xhaka, who famously faced him in Albania colours at Euro 2016 — the first brothers to play against each other at a European Championship.

The shirts Xhaka has worn tell the story of two decades of kit design. His early Basel jerseys in traditional red and blue halves, produced by Adidas, are increasingly hard to find and hugely nostalgic for Swiss collectors. His Borussia Mönchengladbach Kappa and Puma shirts from 2012-2016, with the famous black-and-green foal crest, are particularly prized in the 2014-15 Champions League run edition. Arsenal Xhaka shirts span the Puma era of 2016-19 — including the iconic bruised-banana-inspired away kit — and the Adidas revival from 2019 onwards, with the 2020 FA Cup-winning home shirt and the 2022-23 title-challenging home kit the most sought-after. A retro Granit Xhaka shirt from that 2022-23 Arsenal season, when he scored in memorable wins over Manchester United and Leeds, is already becoming a modern classic. His Bayer Leverkusen 2023-24 Castore shirt, worn during the unbeaten Bundesliga season, will go down as one of the defining jerseys of the decade. Switzerland home shirts bearing his number 10 or 34, especially from the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, complete any serious Xhaka collection.