Has it really been 16 years since I last posted about the FOOFA World Cup? Sixteen years to the day?? Well I never.
If you've been watching the 2026 World Cup you might have noticed the unusual design on Belgium's away jerseys:
What are those things? Well, surrealist art lovers may recognize them as the metallic orbs from René Magritte's painting from 1931, La voix des airs.
The Belgian team are paying tribute to their cultural heritage by honouring one of their finest artists. The shirt also features the words "Ceci n'est pas un maillot" ("This is not a jersey"), in reference to, y'know, that pipe thing. Those words were intended to be on the front of the shirt but that broke the rules or something, so they appear on the inside instead, on the collar.
It got me thinking. What if other countries wanted to pay tribute to their artists with a jersey design? What would that look like, eh? Wonder no more, because here are some I came up with.
SWITZERLAND: Hans Ruedi Giger
SPAIN: Salvador Dali
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Harvey Ball
FRANCE: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
ENGLAND: Banksy
THE NETHERLANDS: Piet Mondrian
