Anyway, Cardiff it is. It’s pre-season and the four-time European Cup winners are in town. On the face of it, it’s a tie for the romantics: good old British grit
up against Dutch sophistication. Ninety minutes later, any romantics who made the trip have been left damp and discontented, as 0-0 is the less than electrifying final score.

However, the good news is that we’re not here for the game – we’re here for what happened afterwards. When that final whistle blew 13 years ago, the few hundred Ajax supporters who had made the trip were kept behind in the stadium, to allow the Cardiff fans to disperse. The Netherlands natives faced the prospect of a 560km trip home with nothing but the memories of a drab scoreless draw to content them. They needed entertaining.

That’s where Ali Yassine stepped in. The then stadium announcer knew that Amsterdam was a city renowned for its passion for reggae and had made the decision in advance to play a few records from said genre. And the one he went for first? “I put on a Bob Marley song – Three Little Birds – and they all started dancing,” he told BBC News.

And that was all it took. Before long, the song that first featured on Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1977 Exodus album had cemented itself as a modern-day terrace anthem for AFC Ajax. Today it’s belted out at every home game at the Johan Cruijff ArenA and has even been performed on the pitch by Marley’s son Ky-Mani: initially in 2012, then again for a 2018 Champions League match against AEK Athens.  

And so here we are: football and music have combined in homage to the reggae baller. And it’s a kit that has proved hugely popular on a global scale (it was sold out within three days of launch). But why now? “The 2021/22 third shirt is a celebration of Bob Marley’s life as it coincides with the 40th anniversary of his passing,” explains James Webb, a senior designer at adidas and the man behind this beauty. “It was important for us to respect Jamaican and Rastafarian culture, while trying to merge the Caribbean and European worlds through the lens of music and football.

“This is the first time I have based a concept around a particular song, so it was important that the jersey was able to tell the story of the Three Little Birds just by looking at it. We wanted it to be bold, playful and expressive but simple in execution – just like the lyrics of the song.”

There’s another parallel between football and music that has been emerging over the past few years: third kits have become the equivalent of a B-side, in that they allow for some creative freedom. “There is definitely an appetite for third kits because they offer clubs and their fans new territories to move into,” says Webb. “Home and away tend to play into the DNA and identity of a club, whereas with third kits we are able to push the boundaries in terms of delivering unexpected designs.”

We’ll leave the last word to Marley’s daughter Cedella (who, incidentally, has also caught the football bug: her financial support helped the Jamaican national women’s team qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 2018). “I am beyond touched that Ajax has taken Three Little Birds and made it their anthem,” she said. “Stories like this warm my heart and show how impactful songs like Three Little Birds can be. Soccer was everything to my father and to use his words, ‘Football is freedom.’”