MADRID
Legends: The Home of Football, the world’s first football museum, which is located in the Spanish capital of Madrid, will showcase Turkish football in March next year.
Its president, Marcelo Ordas, who is also an Argentine businessman, told Anadolu on Wednesday that following talks with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), the museum will celebrate Turkish Football Week in March.
The venue, where visitors can also take an interactive tour, is currently being prepared for the 15-day event.
Legends, which opened its doors in June, has at least 5,000 historical objects, including the jerseys of football greats such as Pele, Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Andres Iniesta, and Paolo Rossi.
Ordas said he traveled to Türkiye several times and was impressed by Turkish people’s passion for football.
He said Turkish Football Week will be open to all football fans so that visitors will be able to see what makes football so special in Türkiye.
Referring to their large collection, Ordas said that Legends is the football world’s Prado or Louvre, as the museum contains many well-known football players’ jerseys they wore in the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League finals.
Alongside Ronaldo’s 2002 Brazil kit and Messi’s 2022 Argentina shirt, the museum features Türkiye’s 2002 World Cup jersey that former Turkish defender Alpay Ozalan wore when the team won the bronze medal.
Brazil won the 2002 World Cup and Argentina secured the 2022 World Cup.
In addition to Türkiye’s World Cup jersey, Galatasaray’s 2000 UEFA Cup final shirt is also displayed in the museum.
Galatasaray beat Arsenal on penalties to be crowned the 2000 champions in that tournament, one of the historic achievements for Türkiye and the club.
“All of these are the gems of football. But the most valuable one for me is Diego Maradona’s shirt that he wore in the 1986 World Cup final against Germany,” Ordas said.
“Then he gave it to German (midfielder) Lothar Matthaus, and we took it from him to bring it here,” he said, adding the shirts’ sentimental value is far beyond their material value.
Ordas said the capital city of football is probably Madrid, and that is why it was chosen for the Legends museum.
He said that Madrid has Real Madrid, the club with the most titles in the world, and their archrivals Atletico Madrid, who regularly play in international competitions, and they are playing in the Spanish La Liga, one of the best leagues.
“One of the legs of El Clasico, the most-watched sports competition in the world, is here,” he added.
“El Clasico” (The Classic) is played between Real Madrid and Barcelona, as there is a fierce rivalry between the Spanish clubs.
Built in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol area at a cost of nearly €10 million ($10.5 million), the Legends museum also has a football store, a 4D cinema, a game area, and a rooftop restaurant.
Since its opening, nearly 45,000 people have visited the place.
