Invent Football

The Man Left Behind: Jan Olssen reflects on being beaten by the Cruyff turn

Beautiful words from the defender who had to deal with a magician’s most iconic move. “He will always be in my heart.” Respect in peace, Johan.

We were feeling pretty good and bad about this game

The first football kit featuring a hijab: Afghanistan Football Federation and Hummel

In addition to creating a gorgeous shirt reflective of a diverse set of artistic styles and national symbols of Afghanistan, Hummel has designed the new women’s kit with an integrated hijab for female footballers.

‘We don’t sponsor the biggest teams in the world, but we make partnerships with teams and clubs with a story to tell, like Afghanistan,’ Hummel owner Christian Stadil said. Hummel’s mission statement is ‘Change the World through Sport’.

‘We try to meet the Afghan people where they are, and right now that is by helping the women play football with or without a hijab’.

Through official bans on women’s sports instituted before the fall of the Taliban, prejudice that has endured long since, and a lack of institutional support from both domestic and global sporting authorities—including the International Football Association Board (IFAB), who outlawed hijabs and religious head coverings until 2012—women’s football in Afghanistan has grown against all odds. 

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Public displays of affection in Portland

After lifting the club’s first ever MLS Cup, the city of Portland came together to celebrate their Timbers. With a full tifo prepared by the Timbers Army in all its glory, the supporters led up to kickoff with a little message, “You always remember your first.” On a Sunday afternoon packed with sun, rain, smoke, and a healthy amount of freekicks and bicycle kicks scored by Argentinians, the passion felt in the Pacific Northwest on display for the world to see. Our man Eric Beard was in the house with a camera in hand.

Ápice by Luciana Lopez Schütz

In the midst of a landscape she had never seen before, Luciana Lopez Schütz found herself at the highest point of her home region in Argentina. This sparked her Ápice series that plays with colour and texture, and even reflections of how environments can feel either absent or full of substance in the air. From a purple pitch to an icepick digging into an endless off-white, 

As our friends at Intern Magazine write in their feature on Luciana, “The spontaneity of this process allowed Luciana the creative freedom to experiment with “transparencies, the layers behind the picture, and the unseen”. This results in gloriously delicate, ethereal images, where she is able both to document this feeling of absence and at the same time revere the scenes that the emptiness creates. See more of Luciana’s work and show us where is football.

The Invincibles. No L.

Arsenal in those jeans by Duval Timothy

As part of a group exhibition called “In those jeans” by Safia El Dabi, ten artists and collectives were each invited to alter the same pair of classic high-waisted jeans in their own way. 

Reframing the idea of putting your team on your back, London-based artist Duval Timothy decided to turn the classic high waisted jeans into a hand painted Arsenal football kit. 

In his words, “I wanted to highlight abstract modernist aesthetics that exist within uniforms, sports and branding. I hoped to keep the jeans in harmony with the original kit whilst deliberately using cheap paint that will crack over time and give the jeans a heavy, rigid property that contradicts what is considered to be the primary function of a football kit.” See more of Duval’s work here.

Copa América 2015’s font by Bijan Berahimi

Before Chile hosted and eventually won last summer’s Copa América, Nike commissioned designer Bijan Berahimi to create a font that would be used throughout the tournament for the company’s entire campaign. The font made its way on to massive murals in Santiago, where the line ‘Atrevte a crear’ (Dare to create) was used. See more of Bijan’s work.

Brazil from above

Seen by jr on an afternoon in Rio de Janeiro.

messi, the day he signed for barcelona

The Best of Football Writing in 2014

Every year since 2011, A Football Report has published an annual Best of Football Writing list.

What was once a way for us to simply appreciate and remember the preceding 12 months has grown into a full-fledged community activity, with every corner of the world submitting their favourite articles, photographs, films, and football-inspired designs.

This is the world’s game, as celebrated, expressed, and understood by the world.

We hope you enjoy The Best of Football Writing in 2014.

This is fire. Here's to 2015!

King Abidal

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To honor DaMarcus Beasley and his retirement from USMNT, here’s a photo of him, Kyle Beckerman, and Landon Donovan at Disneyland in November 1999.

Cristiano x Azulejo

The pride of old and contemporary Portugal collide. Designer Charis Tsevis created a series of Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired mosaic illustrations based on the great Portuguese tradition of Azulejo. (via AFR)

Unpredictable is Underrated: Appreciating Thierry Henry

Some things - albeit in increasingly rare quantity - transcend time. 

Some artists find ways to extend their craft, their respective careers, into moments that make others stop.

It isn’t about turning heads. It isn’t about showing up to do the spectacular that is expected.

It’s about slowing down in a world that never stops. It’s about sacrificing the speed of life for a distinct purpose. To question. To challenge. To allow others to imitate, or simply enjoy.

Thierry Henry established himself as an invincible. Before that, he was a world champion. But alongside every achievement, Thierry remains the master of evading any recognition of the praise and hyperbole that fans and journalists prescribed to him every day.

There was a conscious ignorance, a near negligence when it came to publicly acknowledging his talent that made Thierry like no other. 

A refusal to focus on himself brought about an attribution of supreme confidence. Thierry could pull off the absurd, but there was always more.

More. More. More.

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