The Football Shirt That Travelled Around the World for 25 Years

When Kevin Hill discovered that his favourite Celtic football shirt had disappeared from his home in 2001, he assumed someone had stolen it during a party.

What he did not know was that the missing shirt was about to begin a journey that would last for more than two decades and take it across several continents.

The shirt, a green-and-white Celtic top bearing the name of former football star Ian Wright, became the centre of an elaborate practical joke organised by one of Hill’s childhood friends.

A shirt with special meaning

Hill, who grew up in Aberdeen and is now 47, had been a Celtic supporter since childhood. His father regularly took him to matches in Glasgow, while his parents bought him the club’s latest shirt each season.

The particular shirt that disappeared was especially important to him because Ian Wright had been one of his favourite footballers. Wright joined Celtic in 1999 near the end of his playing career.

Hill had bought the shirt before Wright’s squad number had been confirmed, so it carried the player’s name without a number on the back.

After the shirt disappeared during a house party in Edinburgh, Hill suspected that someone he knew was responsible. But he never discovered who had taken it.

Then the photographs began

Several years later, Hill received an unexpected email from an address he did not recognise.

The sender revealed that they had his missing shirt and had decided to send it on an unusual adventure.

The first photograph showed an unknown woman holding the shirt at the London Eye. More photographs followed, with the Celtic top appearing in Barcelona, Turkey, Italy and locations across South America.

The shirt eventually travelled to places including Peru, Easter Island, Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States.

Each time Hill received a new photograph, the person holding the shirt was different. The mystery became even more difficult to solve because his friends appeared to be passing the shirt from one traveller to another.

A joke that kept growing

The prank had originally been planned by Hill’s childhood friend Kris Robertson as revenge after Hill had previously played a joke on him.

Robertson was inspired by the 2001 film Amélie, in which a garden gnome is secretly photographed at famous locations around the world.

He arranged for another friend to take Hill’s shirt during the house party. He then created an email account and began asking travellers and strangers to pose with the shirt during their journeys.

The plan became much bigger than Robertson had expected. Travellers carried the shirt to famous landmarks and sent photographs back to him, allowing the joke to continue for years.

At one point, Hill thought he had worked out who was responsible. But the messages eventually stopped, leaving him with an international mystery and no clear answer.

The secret finally comes out

The truth was finally revealed at Hill’s wedding to his partner Cheryl in August 2026.

During the reception, childhood friends handed Hill a parcel. Inside was a Celtic shirt bearing the name Wright.

Hill immediately recognised it.

Alongside the shirt was a photo book titled Wrighty on Tour: 25 Years of Adventures Around the Globe, documenting the shirt’s extraordinary journey.

Robertson finally admitted that he had organised the prank more than 25 years earlier.

Hill said the revelation was one of the best presents he could have received, particularly because the joke had been kept alive for so long.

Even the original shirt has a mystery

There was one final complication. At some point around 2013, the original shirt was reportedly lost after being passed to another traveller.

Robertson searched online for a replacement and found another shirt that could be modified to look almost identical. He even recreated the lettering by hand.

That means the shirt returned to Hill after 25 years may not be the exact original that disappeared from his home in 2001.

But for Hill, that appears to matter less than the story behind it. What began as a missing football shirt became a quarter-century-long friendship prank involving strangers, travellers and photographs from around the world.

And somewhere, there may still be another version of the original shirt waiting for its own journey home.

Sources: BBC News.