In June 2026 Deniz Undav scored at the World Cup, for Germany, and millions of Kurds who have no team of their own at a World Cup felt, for a few weeks, that they were part of it. We watched every minute, like you did. Now we are launching two shirts for him: the Deniz Undav Kurdistan Edition and the Deniz Undav Germany / Kurdistan Edition. Both carry the name the Kurdish community gave him: Şêrê Kurda, the lion of the Kurds.
Kit 1 and Kit 2, visualised with AI from our designer's print files. Not photos of the finished shirts yet.
Why Şêrê Kurda
Şêrê Kurda is Kurmancî for the lion of the Kurds. Şêr is the lion; Kurda is the spoken short form of Kurdan, the Kurds. When Rudaw reported on FIFA's praise for Undav in June 2026, the headline called him „Şêrê Kurdan“. On the terraces and in songs you hear the short form, and that is what we put on the shirt, in script, on the front: Deniz Undav Şêrê Kurda.
His World Cup in numbers
Undav went to the World Cup 2026 as a striker of VfB Stuttgart with the number 26 on his back. Germany 7-1 Curaçao on 14 June 2026: on in the 64th minute, a goal and two assists. Germany 2-1 Côte d'Ivoire on 20 June 2026: on in the 60th minute, both goals, FIFA's Player of the Match. Against Ecuador on 25 June 2026 he came on again, and against Paraguay on 29 June 2026 he started for the first time, before Germany went out on penalties.
In total: 4 matches, 149 minutes according to his club, 3 goals and 2 assists. In FIFA's match data no German scored more at this World Cup. The German federation lists him with 13 caps and 9 goals. According to Opta he was only the second German to give two assists as a substitute in a World Cup match, after Pierre Littbarski in 1990.
What it meant to us
Kurdistan has no team at a World Cup. The Kurds are one of the largest peoples in the world without a state of their own: more than 30 million according to the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, 36 to 45 million according to the Institut kurde de Paris. For all of us, a World Cup is always someone else's party. Then Undav scored, and Rudaw wrote that he became „the first player of Kurdish descent to score at a FIFA World Cup“, celebrating with a govend. Kurdistan24 and Kurdistan Chronicle reported the same.
He said it himself at a FIFA press conference in June 2026, when asked what his parents told him: „I always get the news from my parents how they view me, how they see me and it's making me proud, you know, that we finally have somebody“. We finally have somebody. That sentence is why these shirts exist.
The two shirts
Both shirts are white, with the number 26 on the chest, the words Deniz Undav Şêrê Kurda in script on the front and UNDAV 26 on the back. Kit 1, the Kurdistan Edition, carries a chevron in red, white and green with the sun of Kurdistan on the left and the Kurdistan crest on the right. Kit 2, the Germany / Kurdistan Edition, puts red, white and green on the left and black, red and gold on the right: Kurdish and German at the same time, without apology, exactly as he described himself.
Our own design, a fan edition from Kurdistanfa.com: not a product of Deniz Undav, the German federation or FIFA.
The two front views are visualisations made with AI from our designer's print files, not photos of the finished shirts. The back is the print design itself.
In his own words
We only quote what Deniz Undav has said himself, word for word and with the source. At a press conference of the German team during Euro 2024 a journalist tried to assign him a different background. His answer: „Ich habe erstmal kurdische Wurzeln“, first of all I have Kurdish roots. In a fan Q&A in 2024 he confirmed for the first time that he is Yazidi: „Ja, ich bin Jeside“. Kurdish, Yazidi, German. All of it on one chest.
Read more
The full story, source by source, with the villages of his parents in Bakur and Rojava and every match of his World Cup: Deniz Undav, Şêrê Kurda on kurdistanshirt.com.
Sources: FIFA match reports and timelines (June 2026); DFB.de and the DFB Datencenter; VfB Stuttgart (30 June 2026); Opta Analyst (14 June 2026); Associated Press via FOX Sports (26 June 2026); DFB press conference at Euro 2024 (YouTube, 21 June 2024); fan Q&A with Deniz Undav (YouTube, 12 April 2024); Rudaw English (15 June 2026) and Rudaw Kurmancî (24 June 2026); Kurdistan24 (15 June 2026); Kurdistan Chronicle (15 June 2026); Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (22 October 2024); Institut kurde de Paris (12 January 2017).
