Bob Marley continues to inspire football jersey

The release of the biographical film Bob Marley: One Love in the USA has revived interest in the figure of the most important reggae musician and a true icon of Jamaican culture. But Marley was not only a charismatic and revolutionary singer, he was also a great football fan. Not just as a fan, but above all as a player who threw himself into numerous games wherever his music took him, forging new friendships and football-related connections. And which, more than forty years after his untimely death, are still so relevant that they have prompted very different sports brands to launch collections dedicated precisely to Bob Marley's love of football. The first was Admiral, the historic English sportswear manufacturer that produced kits for the major English teams in the 1970s and 1980s, when Marley had just moved to London.

Admiral e Fear of God

The collection, designed in conjunction with Mundial magazine, is inspired by an event in 1977 when the singer, along with his band The Wailers, went to Battersea Park to play football, often inviting the local community to take part. Bob Marley was in London to record the LP Exodus, and photos of these encounters and his iconic blue tracksuit have become part of London's style and music tradition. The collection includes a reissue of the tracksuit as well as the yellow 'Rico' T-shirt worn by legendary reggae trumpeter Rico Rodriguez MBE, worn by the band members at matches, and two Bob Marley-inspired football jerseys. To mark the launch, Admiral made a short film tracing Bob Marley's connection to football and the city he called 'his city'. On the other side of the spectrum was the capsule collection designed by Jerry Lorenzo and Fear of God, using one of the famous photos of Bob Marley with a football and an adidas tracksuit. This collection is part of the merchandising for the film Bob Marley: One Love and will be available from Friday, February 16.

Ajax and Bohemian FC

But these are not the first times that the football world has celebrated one of its most famous fans. One of the most immediate examples is the third Ajax jersey that adidas has designed for the 2021/22 season, with a black base and sleeves and collar in red, green and yellow, the colors of Rastafarianism. This jersey also went down in history for having three birds embroidered in red on the back, the Three Little Birds, which became the unofficial anthem of the Dutch club, also sung by Ky-Mani Marley, son of the great Bob. However, the shirt did not fall under UEFA regulations as the references to the singer differed from the club's logo and sponsors. A similar fate befell the jersey of Irish club Bohemian FC, who wanted to design a jersey in 2019 to commemorate Bob Marley's concert at the club's stadium, Dalymount Park, on July 6, 1980. However, the club, which plays in the First Division of the Irish League, did not have the rights to the chosen image of the singer's face in the middle of the shirt at the time. But the club was not discouraged and produced the jersey three years later with an almost identical design.

But Bob Marley was not only a football icon, his songs and his philosophy of life also infected athletes from other sports. Let's remember, for example, the decorated helmet worn by Lewis Hamilton at the first Grand Prix in India in 2011, when the next Ferrarista was still sporting dreadlocks. And let's not forget the many honors that the other great superstar from Jamaica, the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, received during his extraordinary career on the athletics track, such as the racing outfit that Bob Marley's daughter Cedella made for the 2012 London Olympics.