Football Art: New Official World Cup Poster For Russia 2018 Is Really Rather прекрасная (Photo)

Chris Wright

28th, November 2017

3 Comments

With just three days to go until the final group stage draw for the 2018 World Cup is made in Moscow, FIFA have unfurled the official poster that will accompany the tournament in Russia next year.

Produced by artist Igor Gurovich, the poster features legendary Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin front and centre, clawing a giant football out of the sky in front of a delightfully geometric, Soviet-ish background…

Image: @FIFAcom/Twitter

Gurovich was apparently inspired by the art of the Constructivist movement of the late 1920s, with the rays emanating from the football said to symbolise the positive energy that the World Cup gives off.

Speaking to the FIFA website, Gurovich said:

The style of Soviet post-Constructivist posters from the 1920s and 1930s, their unique visual language, a new, fresh poetry of figurative images, became one of the most important and revered elements of Russian culture.

This language is unquestionably thought of as Russian throughout the world. Therefore, in my work on the poster, I really wanted to make this language modern and relevant once again.

We can’t really argue with him on that one. It looks great.

Indeed, it’s definitely up there with the very best of the classic World Cup posters as far as we’re concerned.