‘Work of Art’—Chelsea Unveil 2025–26 Away Kit With Historic Reference

Chelsea’s new away kit can find its deepest origins in a national team which changed the landscape of modern football.

Chelsea have unveiled a new second kit for the 2025–26 season. / Chelsea

Chelsea have released their away kit for the 2025–26 season which the club have modestly billed as a “London masterpiece” and a “work of art.”

Much like last season’s changed strip, the Blues have opted for a largely light away kit. Although this year’s design also includes red and green vertical stripes down the middle of a warm white base.

The new kit is an homage to the strip from 1974 which Chelsea manager Dave Sexton introduced. That vintage, which featured two thick red and green highways roaring down the middle of the design, was a less than subtle nod to the past itself, taking inspiration from Hungary’s legendary side from the 1950s.

Up close. 😍 pic.twitter.com/WROa737xeE

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 12, 2025

The Aranycsapat—Golden Team—infamously thrashed England 6–3 at Wembley Stadium in 1953 to become the first ever team from outside the British and Irish Isles to defeat the so-called inventors of the sport. A beguiling blend of futuristic football left spectators in awe. Legendary English forward Tom Finney was watching from the stands and later reflected: “It was like carthorses playing racehorses.”

England faced Hungary the following year in a rematch to salvage some revenge, but were thrashed even more convincingly, losing 7–1 in front of countless fans in Budapest. The official number had 105,000 in the stadium but it’s widely accepted that many more squeezed in. Around one million Hungarians had applied for a seat and legend has it that people used carrier pigeons to take their ticket from the stands to friends waiting outside.

This iteration of Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea haven’t quite inspired such febrile fandom, but they will have a grander stage to play on next season. The freshly crowned Conference League champions have qualified for the Champions League. Yet, before all that, they will have the chance to sport their new threads at this month’s Club World Cup. The painfully slow ticket sales for that tournament will likely ensure that no carrier pigeons are needed.

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