2022-23 European Football Kit Preview: La Liga (Spain)

The curtain rises on the La Liga season in Spain on Friday, August 12, when CA Osusuna takes on Sevilla FC. Defending champions Real Madrid open their campaign against newly promoted UD Almería on Sunday, August 14, while their rival in El Clasico, FC Barcelona, play their first match of 2022-23 a day earlier against Rayo Vallecano.

NOTE: This preview includes all kit information available as of August 11, 2022.

UD Almería are back in La Liga for the first time since 2014-15, and they’ll take the pitch in kits made by British sportswear company Castore, marking the manufacturer’s first foray into Spanish football. The home kits feature red and white vertical stripes, with the red ones slightly wider than the white ones, and narrow red and white stripes in between. The sand color of the away kit represents the desert of southern Spain that surrounds the city of Almería.

The front of Athletic Bilbao’s away kit features a grey pattern with red drop shadows on a black base. The pattern starts with a lion’s head on the left side, under the club crest, and graffiti-like lines radiate out from there. According to the club, it celebrates “the family, philosophy and culture that the entire Athleticzale community holds so dear.”

The wavy red and white vertical stripes on Atletico de Madrid’s home kit honour of the Manzanares river, which flowed next to the club’s old home ground, the Vicente Calderón stadium. They’ll unveil a third kit later this month, prior to the start of the UEFA Champions League campaign. And, in April 2023, they will mark their 120th anniversary by unveiling a fourth kit inspired by the club’s original blue-and-white kits from 1903.

FC Barcelona are marking the 30th anniversary of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, held in Barcelona, with their home and away kits for 2022-23. The kit is predominantly gold, like medals won at the Olympics — “the most treasured of all Olympic items and which athletes from all over the world strive to win,” the club’s website says. Woven into the front of the shirt is a map of the Eixample, Montjuic and Barceloneta neighbourhoods of the city. And the sleeve cuffs feature the colours of the Olympic rings — blue, yellow, red, green and black — arranged in the same order as they were found on the medal ribbons from the 1992 Games.

Cádiz CF’s home kit maintains the club’s traditional all-yellow shirt, but this time incorporates narrow embossed hoops. The away kit for 2022-23 features a halftone gradient pattern made up of triangles that fades from navy blue at the top to light blue at the bottom.

RC Celta de Vigo’s away kit for 2022-23 celebrates the club’s 100th anniversary with gold trim and checkers on the black kit. The checker motif carries over to the home kit, which is the club’s traditional light blue.

Elche CF is also celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, which means special gold crests on their green away and black third kits. The home kit features gold sleeve cuffs and side stripes, as well as gold on the back of the collar.

A lot of history has gone into RCD Espanyol de Barcelona’s kits for 2022-23 The home kit (middle below) is the club’s traditional blue and white vertical stripes, but with a lighter blue mixed in at the edges that calls back to a kit Espanyol wore in 2001-02. The pink away kit has a heather pattern all over and harkens back to the away kit Espanyol wore in the 2006-07 season, when they went all the way to the final of the UEFA Cup. And the half-white, half-blue third kit (left below) takes its cues from a kit the club wore in 2010 to celebrate its 110th anniversary.

All three of Getafe CF’s 2022-23 kits use the same Joma template, with solid blocks of colour and stripes on both the V-neck collar and sleeve cuffs. All three jerseys also have an embossed pattern of airplanes taken from the club crest. The home kit is blue with neon green accents; the away kit is red with blue accents, and the third kit is a reverse of the home, neon green with blue accents

Girona FC’s home kit takes their usual red and white vertical stripes and literally twists it around — the shirt is divided into quarters, with horizontal stripes in the upper right and lower left sections. The away kit is mostly yellow, with red vertical stripes that stop just below the club crest. The third kit features a tonal blue camouflage pattern all over.

RCD Mallorca unveiled its home kit at the Spanish embassy in Tokyo in late June, along with announcing an extension of their sponsorship deal with Taica Corporation. It features black tigers stripes on a red base. The away kit is black with a tonal pattern of triangles.

CA Osasuna are going a little off-kilter with their Adidas kits for 2022-23. The home kit is mainly dark red, with the right raglan sleeve in navy blue. The asymmetrical sleeves occur again on the third kit, this time a mint green sleeve on a white kit. The black away kit features red shoulder panels.

Rayo Vallecano’s signature lightning bolt appears on all three of their 2022-23 kits. It is red, bordered in black, on the white home kit, and those colours are reversed on the away kit. The third kit features a neon green volt on a black kit, with a pink sponsor logo overtop.

Real Betis are changing up their stripes, as 2022-23 home kit is their first with new supplier Hummel. The home kit retains their traditional green and white vertical stripes, but the green stripes contain a tonal pattern of triangles, evoking the shape of the club crest.

Real Madrid celebrates it 120th anniversary by bringing back purple trim to its white home kits for the first time since 2016-17. The purple away kit harkens back to the 1990s with its tonal pattern of parallelograms.

Real Valladolid are back in La Liga with a new crest (below) and new kits. The home kit accents their traditional purple and white vertical stripes with gold. The away kit combines purple with black for a dark look, along with an iridescent crest. The crest then turns gold on the purple chevron of the white third kit.

Real Sociedad is getting artsy with its home kit for 2022-23. The club’s traditional blue and white vertical stripes have rough brush stroke edges, and the blue stripes contain a tonal paintbrush pattern. Underneath the club crest is a larger, embossed version of the crest. The away kit is predominantly black, with groups of seven grey lines that taper off on alternating sides as they move across the shirt.

Sevilla FC’s white home kit features a tonal pattern that echoes patterns found in the Real Alcázar, a royal palace in the city. The away kit is red with tonal gradient hoops across the front, mimicking the nighttime lighting of the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. The third kit features a pattern inspired by La Giralda, the bell tower of Seville Cathedral, on the raglan sleeves and collar.

Valencia CF celebrate the 110th anniversary of their home stadium with their home and away kits for 2022-23. The retro home kit mirrors what the club wore when they first moved into the Mestalla in 1923. The black away kit features a tonal pattern based on the stadium’s anniversary logo. And the third kit is based on the flag of the Valencian Community.

With a nickname like “the Yellow Submarine,” Villarreal CF aren’t going to stray too far from tradition. The all-yellow home kit features blue accents on the collar and cuffs. While the away kit is light purple, the third kit brings in yellow accents on the mostly black kit.