GAMBA OSAKA - LIMITED EDITION SHIRT 2022
Gamba Osaka are one of Japanese football's heavyweight names, founded in 1980 as the works team of Matsushita Electric, the company the world now knows as Panasonic. Based in Suita on the northern edge of Osaka, they are nicknamed the Nerazzurri (the Black-and-Blues) after their colours, and since 2015 they have called the gleaming Panasonic Stadium Suita home. The "Gamba" name itself is a lovely touch, meaning "leg" in Italian while echoing the Japanese "ganbaru", to persevere.
The 2022 season, which this striking black, blue and gold limited edition shirt celebrates, was one to grit your teeth through. A difficult campaign cost Tomohiro Katanosaka his job in August, with Hiroshi Matsuda stepping up for the run-in. Gamba finished 15th of eighteen on 37 points, winning nine and losing fifteen, dragged into a relegation scrap they ultimately survived.
The cups offered little respite either, so it fell to the league to define a season of real struggle.
Brazilian forwards Patric and Leandro Pereira carried much of the attacking load, but with veteran talisman Takashi Usami unable to summon the old magic, it was a year when Gamba's famous attacking tradition ran dry, making this handsome special shirt a memento of a proud club riding out the storm.
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