Venichka Yerofeev was wrong saying that a public is concentrating on homosexuality only. For some reason he forgot to mention soccer. It doesn’t matter if someone likes it or not, soccer is our everything and a piece of art as well. Soccer has their own Michelangelo, it is Maradona. This nickname was given him after his legendary defeat of England in 1986 in Mexico, and that was the only right comparison. Without any comments, Pele is Leonardo. Kovtun’s own goal and a fatal mistake of Zobnin are absolutely different like strokes on canvases of Edward Munch. Soccer is very versatile, same as art.

Any pupil knows that soccer originated in England and it’s true if we are talking about a modern game. But alternative versions of the game existed much earlier, over 3000 years ago.

There are some soccer mentions in ancient Greek myths. Aphrodite was persuading Eros to make Medea fall in love with Jason and he was pretending that he didn’t hear anything, he was busy playing chess with Hermes. But Aphrodite was tricky and promised Eros a magic ball. Young God gave up and could give people sexual power by using his gift. It was obvious Eros presented a ball to people like Prometheus showed fire.

Has anyone paid attention to the prestigious soccer cups? They look like Greek jars so that proves the fast the ancient Greeks played ball games no less than nowadays.

Archeologists discovered a clay vase dating to 4th century BC during excavations in the ancient Greek town Olbia. There was a picture of naked athlete playing a ball by his foot. The original item is being kept in the Athens Archaeological Museum. Experts say that a fragment of episkyros, an ancient Greek ball sport which involved attempting to move a ball past the opposing team’s end of the field, keeping it away from the other team by passing from player to player while avoiding tackles.

Harpastum was the Roman adaptation of episkyros, and as such, some of our knowledge of each sport is derived from information on the other. To tell the truth, there was a medieval pause for thousand years, but let’s not speak about sad things. It had all finished when Renaissance came. A funny fact: at that time not only painting and sculpture came to life but ball games as well. Wasn’t it just coincidence?

Comparing Renaissance to soccer, it is worth remembering with a kind word the owner of Juventus F.C. Giovanni Agnelli. Having a sense of beauty, Agnelli did not separate soccer from art. It was he who contrasted Alessandro Del Piero and Roberto Baggio to Pinturicchio and Perugino, renaissance painters. Agnelli shared his idea with mass media, and the word “Pinturicchio” became his name in later life.

“Portrait of a Boy” is considered to be one of the most famous Pinturicchio’s creations. It is still a mystery if the boy posing for the artist could really play soccer. All in all, there should be someone who could memorize a young soccer star forever while Raphael was inspired by Margarita Luti, his muse. 

Painting portraits of soccer stars is still popular now – for example, Igor Snigirev, a modern artist from Izhevsk has the whole collection of paintings devoted to soccer players. Maradona’s portrait was ordered to Mr. Snigirev for the visit of well-known film director Emir Kusturica who had starred the film about great Argentinian not long ago. It is known, Kusturica highly appreciated the work but didn’t buy it. It’s interesting if he still thinks about it. 

If Messi, Maradona’s successor, at the end of his career will suddenly win his first significant title in the national team of Argentina, maybe his portrait will appear in ArtHall nearby to picture of great Diego as an art of masterpiece. This historical event might happen on this Sunday.

Marina Sorochkina, Nikodim Byh