I myself play goalkeeper, (albeit rather poorly). Naturally, I tend to have a strong liking for defenders (and like most GKs, tend to hold them to unrealistic expectations). In my opinion, none was better in the 2023 MLS season than Robin Jansson of Orlando City. And I say this as an Nkosi Tafari fanboy. The fact that Robin didn’t even make it as a finalist for the 2023 Defender of the Year award is an absolute travesty. I know Miazga had a great year, but Robin deserved to win and was flat out better, and many people who work within MLS agree with that assessment.

Jansson is a managers dream center back. Not only is he one of the best in the league at 1v1 defending, but he’s actually quite good when on the ball. Having a lock down defender is an amazing asset, but having that same player be able to break lines with their passing? That’s a unicorn. The Swedes ability to completely bypass the midfield and play accurate passes straight to the forwards can turn a game on it’s head in an instant.

So it was with great glee that I happened to look on Fanatics and find his match worn jersey sitting there for purchase. I couldn’t give them my money quickly enough.

They 2023 Orlando City Home kit was realeased in 2023 and is inspired by “The Wall.” Paying homage to Orlando’s large standing supporters section, the front of the kit dons a pattern similar to that of a brick wall. The purple is a very attractive color as well with nice shading. Orlando did a fine job on this shirt.

The golden letters for the sponsors and the crest really pop. It’s difficult to get the colors right when photographing, but the crest and the Adidas logo look incrdible in person. No pictures were really able to do them justice or capture their beauty. After a dozen or so attempts I just gave up. And again we see the Kick Cancer patch above the Adidas logo. This is worn by players during the month of September during the MLS Cancer Awareness campaign.

In keeping with the theme of the kit, the edges on both the right and left sides of the jersey, as well as the bottom, have “Man Every Wall” imprinted on them; as does the back of the collar. The club calls this “a long-lasting Club rallying cry for everyone, in all 25,000 of the venue’s seats, to unite and bring the energy of the Central Florida community in supporting its home Club.”

Again we see the beautiful gold color just contrasts wonderfully with the purple. It’s a beautiful combination that I’ve yet to be able to marvel at in person until now. Robin signed this jersey on the 6. The “R J 6” is not the best of signatures I will admit, but it certainly adds to the overall appeal of the jersey.

Evidence of game use on this jersey is a bit more noticable than many others you get from Fanatics. You can see right there in the middle of the above photo that there is a small tear. This is located in the center of the back of the jersey, maybe 6-8 inches from the bottom. Again much harder to see in photos, but as most things you photograph, is much more prominent in person.

The real surprise that came with this shirt though is on the front side. As you can see in the above photo (that came from Robin’s Instagram), Robin wears what is essentially Vicks vapor rub on his jersey during each game. I admit, I did not know this about Robin before I received this jersey. However, I learned this from looking at this jersey and seeing the noticable dark spot in the middle of the jersey between the crest and Adidas logo.

The first picture shows what appears to be a shadow. In fact, if you go back and look at the earlier pictures of the front of the jersey, the shadow appears in all of the photos. It took a while to actually capture, but the last picture really shows the dark spot that is in the fabric of the jersey itself. It is a really nice detail that I’m very excited to have spotted.

Overall I am thrilled to add this to my collection. I know Orlando stuff has been rather difficult to obtain over the past couple of seasons. I may be mistaken, but I dont think they were available through Fanatics at all in 2022. So although a Robin Jansson jersey was high on my list, I didn’t actually expect to be able to get one of his jerseys. To not only be able to get one, but to be able to get one where he was: one of, if not THE best defender in MLS, won the US Open Cup, and finished 2nd in the East, etc. is an added bonus. 2023 was a banner year for the club. Owning a piece of that history, and of one of my favorite players too boot, is just icing on an already delicious cake.