Alou Diarra, the French capitain

Just when you thought that Karl Lagerfeld might be running out of professions – designer, photographer, essayist, wit, host and brand ambassador for everyone form Magnum to Volkswagen – when it comes up with yet another – footballer portraitist.

To celebrate the latest chic French national football jersey, an away kit created by Nike, the Chanel couturier – another profession, let’s recall – has captured one of France’s great new players, Alou Diarra, elegantly juggling a ball.

It’s not Karl’s first soccer moment; Herr Lagerfeld has sketched mega footballers for the last four issues of Sepp, with our South Africa World Cup issue featuring illustrations of Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery, among others.

However, for Nike’ the German meister has trained his lens on his first footballer, capturing the novel spirit of the new French away kit.

Nike and Karl will launch the spruce new outfit on March 28 in Paris with an opening in the capital’s coolest concept store, Colette. Though the kit has also just become available for pre-order via the websites of both Nike and the FFF.

New stripes for the French football team

A swish re-interpretation of the classic blue stripe on white background “mariniere,” or mariner, jersey first wore by sailors in the French Navy in the 19th century, it oozes French sporty chic. Plus, the shirt could not be more environmentally PC – it’s made of 4% organic cotton and 96% from a microfiber polyester entirely derived from recycled plastic bottles.

The natty jersey’s crest is the minimalist cockerel strutting over the FFF of French Football Federation, on the left the classic swish from Nike. Karl photographs Diarra in profile with the French rooster visible. Alou, who has played 31 times for France, first captained France in the final match of the World Cup in South Africa. He also wore the captain’s armband this February, when he led les bleus for the fifth time in his career in their 1–0 victory over Brazil.

The new away jersey is of lightweight fabric that incorporates Nike Dri-FIT technology, while its “engineered ventilation” will keep players cooler, especially Diarra, a tough tackling Bordeaux midfielder, who has also done stints at such giants as Bayern Munich and Liverpool.

Though how anyone could be quite as cool than Karl is hard to imagine.

A swish re-interpretation of the classic blue stripe on white background “mariniere,” or mariner, jersey first wore by sailors in the French Navy in the 19th century, it oozes French sporty chic. Plus, the shirt could not be more environmentally PC – it’s made of 4% organic cotton and 96% from a microfiber polyester entirely derived from recycled plastic bottles.

The natty jersey’s crest is the minimalist cockerel strutting over the FFF of French Football Federation, on the left the classic swish from Nike. Karl photographs Diarra in profile with the French rooster visible. Alou, who has played 31 times for France, first captained France in the final match of the World Cup in South Africa. He also wore the captain’s armband this February, when he led les bleus for the fifth time in his career in their 1–0 victory over Brazil.

The new away jersey is of lightweight fabric that incorporates Nike Dri-FIT technology, while its “engineered ventilation” will keep players cooler, especially Diarra, a tough tackling Bordeaux midfielder, who has also done stints at such giants as Bayern Munich and Liverpool.

Though how anyone could be quite as cool than Karl is hard to imagine.