Museo Jumex celebrates the spirit of the 2026 FIFA World Cup with two compelling exhibitions that explore football as both a global sport and a powerful cultural force.
Objects of Glory, presented in partnership with Qatar Museums and the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, brings together some of the game’s most iconic memorabilia—from Diego Maradona’s legendary 1986 World Cup jersey to Pelé’s 1970 World Cup boots—tracing football’s remarkable journey through history.
Pelé’s Boots from the “Scratch do Ouro” from 1970 World Cup in Mexico
Alongside it, Football & Art. A Shared Emotion, curated by Guillermo Santamarina, examines the deep connections between contemporary art and the world’s most popular sport, revealing how football shapes identity, community, and culture far beyond the stadium.
Museo Jumex opens Objects of Glory, as part of programming under the Qatar Canada and Mexico 2026 Year of Culture, the exhibition brings together some of the most significant objects in the history of the sport, offering the opportunity to explore football’s most defining moments, from its origins in the late nineteenth century to its emergence as a global cultural force.
Early Rule Book of Football The Football League, 1893-1894
“We are very pleased to collaborate with the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum and Qatar Museums on Objects of Glory. This partnership allows us to bring an exceptional selection of iconic objects that have shaped the history of football to Mexican audiences, while continuing to expand the ways in which Museo Jumex engages diverse publics through meaningful cultural experiences.”
Eugenio López Alonso, President of Fundación Jumex
No. 10 of the Century Pelé’s shirt from the 1972 international match against Yugoslavia signed by the player, 1972
“Sport has a unique ability to bring people together through shared emotion and experience. Objects of Glory reflects our commitment to preserving the stories behind football’s most iconic moments while creating new connections between audiences, cultures and communities through the game.”
Abdulla Al Mulla, Director of the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum
Pelé’s Thousandth Crown presented to the player by the Brazilian government, 1969
Timed to the 2026 World Cup games in Mexico City, the exhibition features historic match balls, legendary boots, iconic jerseys, rare trophies, and archival documents that chart the game’s evolution. Among the highlights is Diego Maradona’s match-worn jersey from the 1986 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico City. Additional highlights include Pelé’s boots from the 1970 World Cup, widely regarded as a defining moment in the global popularization of the sport, and a hand-painted leather football commemorating the 1888 FA Cup Final at the Oval in London.
Hand-painted football commemorating the 1888 Football Association Cup Final
Objects of Glory is organized as part of Qatar Canada and Mexico 2026 Year of Culture. The exhibition is curated by Sheikha Najla Al Thani, Curator at the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum.
Paul Pfeiffer, – Vitruvian Figure (Estadio Banorte), 2026. Commissioned work. Courtesy Museo Jumex, Televisa, Perrotin, Banorte y el artista. Installation view Football & Art: A Shared Emotion. Museo Jumex, 2026. Photo: Ramiro Chaves
In conjunction with the 2026 World Cup, Museo Jumex is also presenting Football & Art. A Shared Emotion through July 26, 2026. This exhibition explores the various intersections between contemporary art and soccer as cultural, aesthetic, and social expressions.
Curated by Guillermo Santamarina, the exhibition addresses themes of gender, community, identity, and globality, while analyzing both the playful power of games and their critical and political dimensions. Through paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, and videos—encompassing both historical works and pieces commissioned specifically for this exhibition—Football & Art. A Shared Emotion examines how this sport, extending beyond the field and the stadium, functions as a common and universal language
Iñaki Bonillas- My sun one early morn did shine, 2026. Commission. Courtesy Cortesía Colección y Archivo de Fundación Televisa. Installation view Football & Art: A Shared Emotion. Museo Jumex, 2026. Photo:Ramiro Chavas
“I see soccer as a field of thought, critical and deliberative. A playground for creativity. A universe that intertwines with art, sharing similar parameters, related challenges and achievements, and often, that same emotion: the feeling of being alive”
Guillermo Santamarina, Curator
The exhibition design, created by architect Mauricio Rocha and his studio, offers a spatial reinterpretation of the elements that shape the soccer experience. Drawing on references to dirt fields, locker rooms, and structures specific to the game, the design transforms the galleries into an environment that links the global spectacle of the stadium with the everyday practices of the sport. It establishes a dialogue be-tween architecture, the body, and visual culture that accompanies and expands the exhibition route
The commissioned works address, through different artistic languages, the ways in which soccer articulates collective imaginaries, systems of representation, and structures of cultural circulation, while attending to both its affective dimensions and its social and political implications.
In the Museo Jumex plaza, the collective Tercerunquinto, composed of Gabriel Cázares and Rolando Flores, presents Tribunas(2026), a sculptural installation conceived specifically for this setting. The work is based on the collective’s practice of exploring the boundaries between public and private spaces.
The installation consists of seats salvaged from the recent renovation of the Azteca Stadium, which have been affixed with steel plaques bearing the names of Mexican soccer players. This evokes collective memory, national identity, and the rituals of soccer.The installation comes to life through a public program that includes literary, performative, and musical activities, as well as the broadcast of sports games, emphasizing encounter and shared experience as central dimensions of the piece.
Tercerunquinto,Tribunas[Grandstands],2026. Commissioned work.Courtesyof the artist. Installation view Football & Art: A Shared Emotion. Museo Jumex, 2026. Photo:Ramiro Chavas
With this exhibition, Museo Jumex reaffirms its commitment to artistic practices that engage with popular culture, sports, and everyday life. Football & Art. A Shared Emotionnot only celebrates the aesthetics of the game but also invites eflection on soccer’s power to bring communities together and transcend borders, at a time when the entire world is united around the sport.
Museo Jumex
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Saavedra 303,
Colonia Granada,
11520, Mexico City
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