“Football is the art of compressing universal history into ninety minutes,” suggested George Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer and Nobel laureate. There are novels whose pages are not inked, but instead imbued with the emotions an entire nation lays upon the pitch: epic narratives that, every four years, abandon the page to unfold on grass, inspiring individuals and entire peoples alike.

In truth, the World Cup has never been merely a sporting competition. It has always stood as one of the most expansive forms of collective, performative art on the planet: a global rite capable of turning goals into iconography and ninety minutes into shared memory: into universal history. With the 2026 World Cup entering its climactic phase, we set out to explore its impact and its lyrical essence through the voices of international artists. Creative minds who have chosen football as their muse.

‘Football Mundi’ is an inquiry into how the Beautiful Game shapes our collective imagination, becoming an emotional language that dissolves borders and connects identities, especially in the context of a World Cup.

Today’s guest, from France: Louis Accard. 

What role did football play in your childhood, and what first made you fall in love with the game?

“Football, as a game, was at first a means of social integration for me. Like many young people in the outskirts of cities, it was the most accessible way to integrate a group, to meet other young people and to spend time together. On the other hand, being a football fan was more of a family matter. From a very young age I started following the Olympique Lyonnais, the club that my father and brother supported. Over match evenings at home, trips to the stadium, joys and disappointments; a very strong bond was built and still exists around the shared moments we experienced. I still keep at home my first jersey (size for an 8-years-old boy) received during Christmas in 2005, as a memory of those family moments. Years later, as an adult, I bought the exact same jersey (M sized this time instead), as an echo between the supporter that I am and the child that I was. 

Furthermore, football made me discover one of the strongest feelings of belonging, a kind of ‘popular union’. During major international events like the World Cup, the whole French nation, despite their deep social contrasts, comes together almost unanimously to celebrate. In these evenings, everyone feels a sense of togetherness: strangers become friends, the same heroes are celebrated, and a shared pride in the national team, and what it represents, takes hold. The legendary 1998 FIFA World Cup was the cornerstone of this during my childhood. I started getting into football in the 2000s, in a context where the first world victory of the French team was still resonating in all minds and hearts. Since I was only two years old at the time, I wasn’t able to experience that event live; however, I remember watching the cult documentary ‘Les Yeux dans les Bleus’ with a blend of nostalgia and pride.”

How has the Beautiful Game shaped your artistic evolution, and why did you choose to make it a central muse in your work?

“As an artist, football has been a crucial material for reflection and inspiration, since it embodied precisely the three aspects of my artistic approach around the sacred. My objective when I started painting was to question the phenomenon of the sacred in the image through the principles of heraldry, icons, and symbols. Following this logic, I was able to draw a parallel with the persistence of heraldry as a system of recognizable ‘identity signs’ within the world of football fans and ‘Ultras’. In this context, people gather and identify themselves, body and soul, with the crest and the colors of their club in almost religious collective ceremonies.

I also worked around the principle of icons by creating a kind of ‘portraits of adoration’ based on some of the main icons in the history of football – such as Johan Cruyff, Zinedine Zidane, and Eric Cantona – trying to reflect on the dimension that these figures take on in the collective imagination. I also used the context of football, both as a game and as a phenomenon of socialization, by staging in compositions inspired by sacred art, everyday life in working class neighborhoods, with its notions of boredom and solitude. The football sphere thus stands as a symbolic element highlighted with gold leaf in a kind of ‘sacred representation of the profane’.”

As we approach the final stages of the World Cup, what emotions, memories, and reflections surface when you think of football’s ultimate global stage?

“Many things emerge on different levels. Of course, on a personal level, there is the anticipation of festive days, bursts of joy, the growing anxiety as matches approach, the unexpected twists. In France, the World Cup is associated with the start of the summer holidays, a time when school has ended but not everyone has left town yet, allowing people to still gather together massively.

In addition, however, a more political reflection on the French social context comes into the picture. I think that in the exacerbated polarization we are living in, people are more divided than ever. I wonder to what extent the French national team will bring people together, as it did in 1998 or 2018. I am not sure if a team, where many players have openly taken a stand against racism and extremism, will still enjoy unanimous support in the case of victory.

On an artistic level, I am planning to work on a new series about solitude. A theme which evokes me many images from previous World Cups, especially about penalty kicks. The Panenka by Zinedine Zidane in 2006, or the missed penalty by Asamoah Gyan during Ghana-Uruguay in 2010. I was thinking of possibly taking as material for inspiration the moments of concentration and disappointment that occur during these penalty shootouts. I just hope it will not concern the French team this year!”

If you had to choose one of your works to capture the power of a global and social event like the World Cup, which would it be, and why?

“It would be the ‘icon’ portrait of Johan Cruyff. World Cups are the events where players meet, not only their supporters, but the general public, making it possible for them to become national icons. In this perspective, I find Cruyff’s story very interesting. Considered by the football landscape as a pivotal player and coach, he tragically never brought back a major international trophy to the Netherlands, with a lost final in 1974 against West Germany in a rather improbable scenario. I deliberately staged him wearing the Netherlands kit in front of a view of Amsterdam, a bit in the manner of Italian portraits of the Quattrocento. I did this in order to blur the distinction between his status as a national icon and a club legend, opening a space for reflection on the modalities of the sacred in both the subject and the form.”

At a time when the boundaries between art and football are becoming increasingly fluid, how do you hope this relationship will evolve?

“The question of the representation of football in the artistic field is quite central to what interests me in “Genre painting”. Historically, it refers to works whose subjects fall outside the standards of the hierarchy established by classical art (historical, religious subjects, portraits, and so on). I find it quite natural that football — and more broadly the bond between sport and art — emerges alongside the evolution of values associated with modern and contemporary paradigms. To this end, I believe it would be desirable for the treatment of football – as both sport and popular spectacle – to raise broader questions regarding the role of pop culture within the art world, as well as the function of sport within society.

In France, football often remains confined to the middle and working classes, and despite a certain openness, the more affluent and cultured circles maintain a distant, sometimes even condescending attitude. It is paradoxical, considering that other forms of popular culture, such as cinema, are much more integrated. Even today, in the art world I know few people who value — or at least do not look down on — the fact of enjoying football. I hope that its greater presence in art will help break down these barriers. Building bridges between cultural circles and popular phenomena, while at the same time restoring interest in contemporary art among an ever-wider audience.”

PENALTY KICKS 

Which footballer most inspired your imagination during a World Cup?

“Without a shadow of a doubt, Zinedine Zidane: the perfect embodiment of the great ‘national hero’ in sport. He gave both the best and the worst to the French national team. His two goals in the 1998 final and the red card in 2006.”

What is the most creative World Cup kit you’ve seen?

“France team’s away kit for this World Cup, with its copper color echoing the Statue of Liberty: a surprising yet effective choice for a team historically associated with blue and white.”

What is the most artistic gesture or moment you’ve witnessed in a World Cup match?

“Not just a single gesture, but Zidane’s entire performance against Brazil in the 2006 quarterfinals: a masterpiece, blending context, narrative, and the pure aesthetics of the game. The great Brazilian team witnessed a demonstration of ‘Joga Bonito’.”

What is the most iconic World Cup match you’ve watched?

“France vs. Italy, the 2006 final: a tragic memory, but so intense in terms of narrative. The Panenka against Gianluigi Buffon, the headbutt by Zinedine Zidane, the penalty shootout… I was 9 and I remember it as one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life as a fan.”

What is the most powerful shared moment you’ve experienced at a World Cup?

“The celebration of 2018 triumph: the only one I was able to celebrate to the fullest, in the streets, together with everyone. My generation grew up in the shadow of 1998, but until 2018 had known only disappointments on the international stage.”