The oldest football shirt in Joseph Borg’s collection of the English national team harks back to 1966, when the country won its only World Cup.

Joseph Borg, 42, started his collection of football shirts at age 11 and has never looked back.

The red shirt worn by England for those finals represents the 42-year-old’s eternal hope that the country he supports will again emerge victorious – in next year’s World Cup in Russia.

“The England team has, over the past three years, invested heavily in young talent, which I hope bears fruit at the next World Cup,” he said.

England’s passage to the finals in Russia is still not secure, even though they top the group. Tomorrow, the team will play Malta at the Ta’ Qali stadium.

Mr Borg will not be there to watch the game because of work commitments, but his eyes glisten when he speaks of the collection he has passionately built over the past three decades.

It includes every national team football shirt used by England since 1966, with his favourite being the one from 1990, which carries the signature of the great Paul Gascoigne.

“Gascoigne was one of the best English players of the last 30 years, and that shirt is very close to my heart,” Mr Borg explained.

He started the collection when he was just 11 years old and has never looked back since. He keeps the shirts on display at his home, a reminder of the family tradition that lured him into supporting England.

And while every shirt could recount a part of England’s football history, the collection serves as an unwitting display of football’s changing fashion over time.

Which is the shirt that he loves most in terms of aesthetics?

“The recent football shirts designed by Nike are the nicest in my view,” he said, pointing out that the English FA replaced sports clothes designer Umbro with Nike three years ago.