The Saint-Étienne 1976 shirt is green, simple and carries the name of a local company, Manufrance, across the chest. In France it means much more than that. It is the shirt of Les Verts, the team that made the whole country fall in love with football in the 1970s.
They did not win the European Cup. But the way they lost it made them immortal.
Coached by former player Robert Herbin, Saint-Étienne dominated French football in the mid-1970s, winning the league in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Their home, the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, became known as le Chaudron, the Cauldron, because of the noise and heat its supporters created on European nights.
The team mixed local heroes and smart signings: Yugoslav goalkeeper Ivan Ćurković, who had come from Partizan, Argentine defender Osvaldo Piazza, the Revelli brothers, Jean-Michel Larqué, Dominique Bathenay, Jacques Santini and a young winger with long hair whom everyone called l’Ange vert, the Green Angel: Dominique Rocheteau.
In the 1975/76 European Cup quarter-final, Saint-Étienne lost the first leg 2–0 in Kyiv against the Dynamo team of Oleg Blokhin. Back in the Cauldron, they won 3–0 after extra time, with Rocheteau scoring the decisive goal. French football had rarely seen a night like it.
In the semi-final they met PSV Eindhoven. A narrow win at home was followed by a goalless draw in Eindhoven, and Saint-Étienne were in the final.
On 12 May 1976, Saint-Étienne faced Bayern Munich, the holders, at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Les Verts were the better side in the first half. Bathenay hit the frame of the goal with a long-range shot, and Santini’s header also struck the woodwork.
The goalposts at Hampden were square, not round, and French fans have believed ever since that round posts would have sent the ball in. Twelve minutes into the second half, Franz Roth scored from a free kick, and Bayern won 1–0. The poteaux carrés, the square posts, became one of the great legends of French sport.
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The next day, something unusual happened. The beaten team returned to Paris and was cheered by around 100,000 people on the Champs-Élysées. France had found a team to love, and the green shirt became a symbol far beyond the city of Saint-Étienne.
The story had one more twist. In 2013 the club bought the original square posts from Hampden and put them on display in the new Musée des Verts at the Geoffroy-Guichard.
The Saint-Étienne 1976 shirt is all about that famous green, with the Manufrance name across the chest. Manufrance was a manufacturer based in Saint-Étienne itself, which made the sponsor feel like part of the city rather than an advert. Simple, bold and unmistakable.
Green is a bold colour, and that is exactly the point. The Saint-Étienne 1976 shirt looks great with light denim, beige chinos or simply black shorts on a summer day. It is a conversation starter: anyone who knows football will ask you about the square posts.
Add your own name and number to make it personal, or keep it clean, exactly as Les Verts wore it in Glasgow.
Few shirts carry so much emotion. The Saint-Étienne 1976 shirt is a reminder that football is not only about trophies, but about the stories people tell for the rest of their lives. Ask any French fan over sixty about the square posts and watch their face.
Discover more of Les Verts with the Saint-Étienne 1980/81 home jersey and the 1981/82 home jersey, browse all our French club jerseys, or read about the Hampden Park square goalposts on Wikipedia.
Like every shirt in our collection, the Saint-Étienne 1976 shirt is made to order in 8–10 business days and can be personalised with any name and number.
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Archive photos: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo, Nationaal Archief (CC0).
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Football Jersey · measurements in cm
| Size | Width | Length |
|---|---|---|
| S | 54 | 74 |
| M | 56 | 76 |
| L | 58 | 78 |
| XL | 60 | 80 |
| 2XL | 62 | 82 |
Regular fit. All measurements are in cm and may vary by ±1 cm.
