Town's global support continues to grow
The Shrewsbury Town colours often go far and wide and now they are being worn by a football team in the Italian capital Rome.
The team's players visited the Greenhous Meadow for the final game of the season against Portsmouth last month when they were kitted out with eight training tops by Sib Hayes in the club shop.
It was soon revealed to Sib the team play under the name of Shrewsbury Town Italy and they currently wear Town's 125'th anniversary season shirt in the Rome seven-a-side league. They have a big final coming up when they will hope to celebrate success.
Sib spent the majority of the Pompey match printing their new training shirts with numbers for them to wear during their games.
"They came in after the game to offer their thanks for our hospitality," said Si Evans, who also works in the club shop. "They then took the opportunity to purchase the current full away kit and they were delighted to do so.- They were very happy with being able to now play in a full STFC kit, and couldnt thank us enough"
Lorenzo Rosini, part of the Rome side who have taken Shrewsbury Town to their hearts, explained why the club had suddenly become so popular in the Italian capital.
It all stemmed from two existing rival teams in Rome merging their colours and deciding they would now play in a strip close to blue and yellow.
"We were - and are - all fond of English football, a wonderful tradition that we can only love," said Lorenzo. "Some days before our first official match as a new team we still didn't have a name or a shirt.
"One day we were in front of a table with all the possible football shirts you can imagine. There was Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AS Roma, Bayern Munchen, Liverpool and dozen and dozens of other shirts.
"We were searching, searching and searching and at some point we found this blue shirt. A simple shirt. Great. Beautiful. I've still got the picture of the first time I wore that shirt to show it to my friends. We were all impressed about that shirt. We didn't have doubts anymore.
"But what colours? We looked at Shrewsbury Town and decided this will be our name. This will be our shirt.
"Since that day we began to think at Shrewsbury Town as our team. We began to follow and support them. We created our official Facebook page and we began to wear that shirt as our own skin.
"We then decided we must see with our eyes what it's like a match at the real Shrewsbury Town.
"It was one of the greatest experience of our life. We met the great people at the club shop, we saw the game and we really now feel a little part of Shrewsbury Town."
Shrewsbury Town Italy have their championship final on 20th of May, and would like to invite any Shrewsbury fans to visit their Facebook page “Shrewsbury Town Futsal” to keep up to date on their journey and to offer any messages of Good luck.
Everybody at Shrewsbury Town FC would like to offer their best wishes to Shrewsbury Town Italy, both on and off the field and would like to extend their gratitude for you choosing to represent the Club in this way.
We hope to see you all again soon
Buona fortuna, Shrewsbury Town Italia!