The history of football through an exhibition full of valuable objects

An 8 or 9-year-old boy, wearing a light blue and white shirt with Messi’s 10 on the back, recovers the museum rooms in search of what was promised: the 1986 World Cup. He is accompanied by another child, dressed in Di María, who insists on seeing a jacket that Leo wore in a match with the National Team. There is in these kids an enthusiasm that they drag from the feat of Qatar. And here, in the National Historical Museum, I found a space to prolong that state of World Cup happiness.

What summons these kids so much is Pasión de multitudes, the exhibition that records 130 years of Argentine soccer history. The ball route proposes chronological and thematic scales, all illustrated with valuable collectibles. An experience that could well be defined as a journey through emotions.

There is everything: jerseys, balls, boots, trophies, photos, magazines, figurines and even stalls and boards from old stadiums. The chronological tour is complemented by thematic spaces, dedicated to Maradona, the National Team and the history of women’s football.

The first step is focused on the amateur era, valid until 1931. And there, two original Alumni shirts, the great team of those years, dazzle. They are red and white, with vertical canes, and they resist their more than one hundred years of life as best they can.

The item t-shirts is, without a doubt, the most attractive in the sample. There are real relics. In the sector dedicated to Maradona, for example, they exhibit a jacket that he wore in Argentinos Juniors in 1977, another from Boca from 1981, one from Newell’s and another from Xeneize from 1996.

And in the gallery of the National Team there are also several pearls: a shirt that Kempes wore in Argentina 1978, the classic green jumpsuit of Pato Fillol from the Mundialito that was played in Uruguay in 1980, the blue jacket of Tata Brown in the match against England in Mexico 86 and one of Mascherano from Brazil 2014, among other wonders. The tour of the showcases ends in front of the cup that the National Team obtained, precisely, in Mexico.

Popular area. Last year, at the National Historical Museum, she put on an exhibition on Argentine rock from the 80s. 112,000 people saw it, a record number in the history of the museum. Now, in the first three weeks of this football exhibition there were more visitors than at the start of the previous one.

“The idea is that the museum also deals with the most recent Argentine history and, in addition, proposes popular themes to summon people who perhaps never came. It is a way of expanding the public”, explains Gabriel Di Meglio, director of the museum. And he ends: “Soccer is a central cultural expression in the country. Next year it will be the 130th anniversary of the first tournament that was held and it is good that a museum shows such a long and exciting history in a serious way”.

free admission

◆ The Passion of Multitudes exhibition takes place at the National Historical Museum, Defensa 1600, until August 31, 2023.

◆ Visiting hours are from Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

◆ Admission is free and free.

◆ In addition to the exhibition on the history of Argentine soccer, there will be different activities in the space, such as talks, public interviews, debates and the projection of audiovisual material.