Bayern Munich’s replica jerseys are so authentic, Coutinho plays in a kid’s size one!

Some sharp-eyed reporters at The Sun spotted something a little funny about Phil Coutinho’s jersey when he thrashed Werder Bremen, scoring a hat-trick and making two assists: Coutinho’s authentic jersey was a little less authentic than those of his teammates. That is, he was wearing a replica jersey like those typically sold in Bayern Munich’s fanshop.

If you can access Getty Images’s high-definition photographs and look very closely at Coutinho’s jersey, you’ll notice that the fabric is slightly different from his teammates’ jerseys. Joshua Kimmich was also apparently wearing an authentic “replica” jersey rather than the “official-official” jersey — or something like that.

Photo by A. Beier/Getty Images for FC Bayern

In a rare instance of trans-Channel sports tabloid collaboration, Bild to the bottom of the mystery spotted by The Sun: before the season begins, Adidas provides Bayern with jerseys for all the players in their sizes. But Coutinho joined the club after the team’s jerseys were delivered.

So Bayern had to make do with what was available. Unfortunately, though, the available sizes of their “authentic” home jerseys did not fit him very well, so he opted instead for the less expensive replica jersey — youth size 176!

Coutinho at least has proper away jerseys. At home, though, he will have to play in his own replica jersey until the end of the year, after which Adidas presumably will deliver a crate of official-official player jerseys for him in the appropriate size. As Bild explains, every player receives two brand-new jerseys before every game, so they can change them at halftime if necessary.