It is also the last Barcelona jersey that I bought. I bought it thinking that I'd be buying one jersey a season, and oh how wrong I turned out to be.
It's probably my favorite article of clothing that I own. My favorite team, my favorite player. It looks good on me, it feels good on me, and I've had so many memories made while wearing this shirt. When I bought it, I had no idea that this would be the season we'd win a treble. I bought it during a time we weren't doing that hot in the league, we hadn't even played Real Madrid yet, and even Xavi was still far more underrated than he is now (you could argue he's not underrated at all, but I guess that depends on the circles you run in). He hadn't even been nominated for a Ballon d'Or/FIFA World Player yet.
With this jersey, I've seen Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2-6 and 5-0. I've seen them sneak past Chelsea to score a goal in the 87th minute to qualify for the Champions League final. I saw them win a treble in this shirt. I met up with a guy I had a massive crush on while in this shirt and we talked about football for a couple hours. I visited Camp Nou in this shirt, and got cat-called to cries of "Visca el Barça!" and "Visca el Xavi!" in this shirt. I've been on delayed and cancelled flights in this shirt, and I've been in three different countries in this shirt. I wore it when I went to Manhattan to meet up with my best friend in person for the first time to watch the 2010 Champions League final as she donned her Real Madrid jersey. I wore it to watch Barcelona games at a bar in Toronto and felt like I gave Xavi an extra stroke of luck whenever I wore it because he scored in three out of five matches I went to watch in this shirt. Hell, 95% of the Catalan I know I learned while owning this jersey, not to mention that I spoke with some of my favorite radio people in Catalan while wearing this jersey.
I'll be honest. I still want to get another Barcelona shirt when I have the money. But whenever I look at this one, and think of all the things I've done and seen while wearing it, I can't help but wonder if this is the only jersey I need.
