Football fanatic Portsmouth FC fan touring the world wearing different team’s shirt every day in year-long challenge

Pompey fan Antonio Massari, 35, has travelled to more than 22 countries since taking on his challenge to wear a different football shirt every day in July last year.

Antonio, who has been collecting shirts since he was young, wears tops from his 500-plus collection that range from the obscure to the well-known.

The Southsea-based soccer supporter, who also supports Inter Milan as his mum lives in the Italian city, ranks Portsmouth’s 2008 FA Cup winning shirt with ‘Muntari’ on the back as among his favourites. ‘I am a Pompey fan and the shirt I care most about is the shirt from when we won the FA Cup,’ he said.

‘After arriving in Portsmouth the first thing I did was go to Fratton Park and buy the shirt.’

Antonio goes to great lengths to get shirts from places he visits. ‘I try to buy from a local team or the national team and contact clubs and football associations and buy second hand. But it is not easy when you go to obscure places like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Singapore,’ he said.

‘It’s also hard when I’m away for 10 days at a time as I will need at least 10 shirts. Sometimes I’m travelling round with a backpack with hardly anything but football shirts.’

And he’s turned to bribery to fulfil his ambition. He said: ‘In the Maldives I went to the stadium and saw a cleaner there. I asked them if I could buy a shirt for the national team.

‘I gave the cleaner £20 and they opened the dressing room door and gave me a shirt from one of the national players. So I’ve even managed to use bribery.’

Antonio says he does his research and tries to avoid rubbing up opposing team fans or people the wrong way. ‘I would never wear a Southampton shirt in Portsmouth. I am not stupid,’ he said.

‘I did go to Manchester and briefly wore a Liverpool shirt for five minutes but that was as a joke.

‘I try to avoid rivalries which can be to do with religion and politics. I wore an Israel shirt once and some people on Instagram took it personally.

‘I do my research about where I’m going as sometimes there are things you do not know, like in Greece a lot of teams were formed from Turkey during the Ottoman Empire - like AEK Athens.’

He added: ‘I’ve always loved football shirts from when I was a child. They are often only worn for matches in stadiums but they can be worn for all occasions as there are so many types.

‘I decided to take on the challenge when I got to 365 shirts and have really enjoyed it. It’s good to have shirts as souvenirs and represent the place you have been to.’

Antonio has been all over Europe including to ‘freezing’ Iceland where he was forced to wear his shirt over his jacket.

He has also been to Asia and the Middle East to countries ranging from Vietnam to Jordan and the UAE and is set to finish his challenge in October.

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