Opinion – Marina Izidro: Exhibition in London honors Brazilian team and Pele

The Design Museum, one of the coolest in London, has debuted the exhibition “Football: Designing the Beautiful Game”. A dive into the past through more than 500 objects that show how innovation and design have transformed the sport. But not only that.

At the entrance, the sound of a narration makes the visitor feel like they are in a football match. Then begins a class for more than two hundred years of history. Brazil, of course, is honored.

Next to George Best’s first boot is the one Pelé wore in the 1970 World Cup. Footwear by Ronaldo Fenômeno, Zidane, Messi and Mia Hamm are in the same window.

The wall with dozens of uniforms includes those from Flamengo and Palmeiras from 1990. One is highlighted: what the King of Football wore at the 1958 World Cup. There, we learn the origins of the canarinho shirt. White was banned after the defeat to Uruguay in the final game of 1950. The new uniform, which was supposed to have the colors of the Brazilian flag, was chosen in a contest.

The 1928 Chelsea v Arsenal photo shows one of the first times numbers would have been used on shirts. According to reports, the press liked the novelty that helped to identify the players. On the side, we see how prejudiced our football is. Another photo shows Gabigol wearing the 24, in Flamengo, in a demonstration against homophobia.

The show teaches how the few manufacturing options of the past limited the creativity of uniform design and, as a result, so many clubs around the world use similar colors, such as black and white stripes. And it has a critical tone when remembering that the delay in creating specific boots for women delayed the evolution of women’s football.

Another room displays the colorful official posters of the World Cups, including the ones our country hosted. And it’s curious to see the huge and heavy ball from the 19th century, made from animal bladders and used by England’s elite – it was forbidden to head it, it would be dangerous and painful – next to current technological models.

You can appreciate the genius of engineers and architects who created stadiums that combine beauty, modernity and safety. And understand how design reaches us, in pieces such as the button football and the Cup sticker album.

If you happen to visit London until the end of August and go to the exhibition, you will certainly identify with something. In my case, it was the mascot of the 1990 World Cup. Seeing the doll that looks like it was made of Lego with the colors of the Italian flag brought back memories of when I watched my first World Cup.

Sport is intimately linked to who we become. When I look at swimming pool lanes I remember swimming school; a berimbau, from the capoeira I made for years; the colored ball transports me to a beach volleyball game. Each has its own fond memory, thanks to the idea of ​​someone who once created these objects.

Coincidentally, this week I watched the movie Masterpiece Hunters, about the rescue of artwork stolen by Hitler in World War II. It’s based on real events and I don’t know how true it is, but one of the characters says, “You can exterminate a generation, burn their homes, and these people will somehow find a way. But if you destroy their history, their done, it’s as if they never existed”.

Exhibitions like this remind us of the beautiful side of sport and how it helps shape our lives, without us sometimes even realizing it. Indeed, football is art.