A special kit to be worn by the national team players in tomorrow’s friendly against Austria was officially launched yesterday at the TeamSport showroom at L-Iklin.

Jonathan Darmanin, director of TeamSport, told a news conference that the company had gladly accepted the MFA’s request to have a special jersey on the same lines as those worn by the national team in their first ever international on 24 February 1957.

They started working on it in September of last year and a delegation went to Diadora at Montebelluna in Trieste, Italy where it was decided that the offer was to be accepted.

Darmanin said: “We must thank the MFA and some contributors who provided photos of that memorable match so as to make the commemorative jersey more or less on the same lines. We now have a full kit which is being presented in red boxes with the eight-pointed cross on the front and the MFA logo on the back. It is an honour for us to be providing such a kit to the players who donned the Malta jersey 50 years ago in that match against Austria.”

TeamSport will also be giving a special kit to the seven players of the national team who are sponsored by them. These are Roderick Briffa, Jamie Pace, Ivan Woods, Gareth Sciberras, Peter Pullicino, Ian Azzopardi and Steven Wellman.

National team manager Ivan Vella said they and TeamSport had gone through a lot of work to be able to get the best description of the jersey.

National coach Dusan Fitzel is hoping that the celebrations on the occasion of this match will not affect the condition of his players. “We can expect a difficult match even if most of Austria’s players arrived yesterday as they are playing around Europe. In any case, I hope we will give them a good run for their money, never forgetting the great performance against Hungary and the disappointing one against Lithuania,” he said.