The New Style of Football: when the game becomes identity

Football is no longer limited to the four lines of the field. Not just the jersey. The game today goes beyond the pitch: it is in the player's body, in the fan's style, on social media, in fashion campaigns, in hairstyles, in collection launches, in gestures and postures. Football has become a language. And like any living language, it evolves and reveals habits, positions, and forms of expression that go beyond the sport.

More than just following trends, contemporary football has begun to produce them. Stars have also become style icons, brand owners, and influencers of behavior. Fans, in turn, are no longer just spectators: they now build their own visual identities, remixing local and global codes in their stadium outfits or on social media.

This change is not just about fashion, but about a transformation of behavior, image, and belonging. What is seen on the field and off it is a new visual imagination around football. An expanding aesthetic that connects style, identity, and personal narrative.

The player as an aesthetic expression

Long before players starred in fashion campaigns or signed collaborations with luxury brands, there were signs that football was also a territory of image. Historic idols understood that by stepping onto the field, they were not just playing; they were communicating. The headband worn by Sócrates in the '80s was more than an accessory: it was a political symbol. Cantona's turned-up collar became a gesture of provocation and style. Maradona combined talent and presence with a natural aura of rebellion that became visual. Ronaldo Fenômeno turned the athlete's body into a trademark, from hairstyles to signature boots.

Beckham, in the 2000s, took this to another level: hairstyle, tattoos, outfits. He didn’t just play; he embodied a public character with global aesthetic dimensions. Since then, the scene has changed and intensified. Today, players are complete celebrities: they create their own brands, carefully choose what they wear, and craft their images with intention. They appear in fashion shows, editorials, and campaigns from the biggest maisons. And, more than that, they use style as personal and political language.

Style is no longer a detail; it is construction. Mbappé, a protagonist inside and outside the field, translates into his visuals, in campaigns with Nike and Oakley, the same objectivity and control he shows in the game. Jude Bellingham projects elegance and maturity through tailoring that reflects his technical and emotional mastery. Cole Palmer, more unpredictable, mixes the uniqueness of his football with London's urban style, naturally connecting to the local cultural scene. Reiss Nelson, Fulham FC's forward, more discreet, surprises by also acting as a creative director, carrying aesthetics as a personal project. And names like Jules Koundé and Hector Bellerín, who have been anticipating this relationship between fashion and football, reinforce this movement with sharp aesthetic choices and a clear command of visual language.

These players don't dress just for vanity. They dress for narrative construction. Style becomes a way to position themselves, aesthetics as discourse, image as identity.

The globalized fan: style as an expression of belonging

If before the visual was a detail, today it is performed identity, both on and off the field. But it’s not just the players who shape this expanding aesthetic. The fan is also part of this construction. Unlike a passive audience, they have always been an active presence at the center of the spectacle. They sing, create, live, resist, and feel. All of this is also reflected in what they wear. Their visual carries layers of affection, symbol, and identity. Between the lucky shirt and brand sneakers, from handmade rags to past season jackets, there exists a visual territory where memory, desire, and belonging intersect.

Today, cheering is also about performing a look. The globalized fan accesses images from South American and European stadiums with the same frequency and translates this into their own style. References inspired by subcultures such as terrace culture, ultras, barras bravas, and organized fan groups remix with elements of streetwear, vintage, and sportswear. But the movement goes beyond dressing: many fans also create. Personalized shirts, unique accessories, photo editorials, collages, videos, curation pages, and even collections. The result is a hybrid visual, between the original and the reinterpreted, where fashion brands and popular pieces coexist in the same space.

In the stands, the visual shares collective codes. Outside of it, it expresses individual choices. Some maintain the ritual: team shirt, neutral sweatshirt, worn sneakers. Others combine layers, accessories, and references that transcend the sports universe. In common, the understanding that dressing, in football, is not just aesthetics; it is a cultural language in constant adaptation that dialogues with territory, history, and the present time.

Aesthetic and image at the center of the game

In an increasingly media-driven scenario, football is also being thought of as an image. Matches are broadcasts, interviews turn into video clips, gestures become performative edits on TikTok or in campaigns. What is posted, how one dresses, who is quoted, all come to compose the script of public performance. Aesthetic does not follow the game; it precedes it and prolongs it.

The players know this. Their looks in the pre-game are documented with the same interest as the plays of the match. Their visual positions, from clothing to hairstyles, from headphones to watches, are part of a continuous communication with the audience. This construction of visual persona becomes strategic: dressing is also about saying, silencing, or marking symbolic territory.

And the market follows suit. Football enters the campaigns of major fashion brands, gains space in displays, in collaborations, and in fashion shows. Not just as an aesthetic reference but as a code of authenticity. Football culture has begun to be read as global urban language, something that carries value, desire, and behavior.

Recent examples illustrate this scenario. FC Barcelona, alongside Spotify, has been repositioning its image beyond the field. Més que un club, it seeks to assert itself as a global cultural platform. The partnership with rapper Travis Scott, featuring a special shirt launch, collection, local show, and visual activations integrated into the team's language, shows how football, music, and fashion now operate in the same symbolic space. It was not a traditional sponsorship, but an aesthetic and strategic collaboration, where the club's crest became part of a multimedia artistic narrative.

In this context, players like Lamine Yamal emerge as central figures. At just 17, he is seen not just as a technical promise but as an emerging image. The youth, the posture, and the origin of the Catalan player reflect a new type of idol, constructed not just by goals, but by the potential to circulate between languages. His figure naturally fits into a communication that connects football, networks, fashion, and urban culture.

In Brazil, some clubs have already begun to explore this potential more structurally. Corinthians, Flamengo, and Atlético-MG are examples that have been collaborating with artists and figures from urban culture to promote connections between football, music, and style. Whether in clips, branding actions, or symbolic presences, these teams have integrated their narratives into productions that circulate outside the field, feeding football as a living cultural language. Still, these movements remain sporadic and timid in light of the possibilities. Each Brazilian club carries a unique story, full of symbols, aesthetics, and its own identity, which could be translated more forcefully through fashion, art, and local cultural expressions. Investing in this dialogue is not just an image strategy; it is a recognition of the symbolic power that football already possesses.

The image has ceased to be an accessory in football; it has become part of the game. Between the field, cameras, and clothing, the sport asserts itself as a visual language in expansion. And it is from this transformation that the future of football as an aesthetic experience is drawn.

The future of football as an aesthetic language

The aesthetic, which previously orbited football as a detail, has come to occupy the center of the experience. Today, the game is built as much on feet as on image. Dressing, communicating, and sharing have become parts of contemporary performance, expanding the meanings of what it means to be a player, fan, club, or brand. Football has ceased to be just a sporting spectacle to establish itself as a visual and symbolic language, capable of expressing style, desire, and belonging.

This process does not point to an end but to an expansion. Football will continue to incorporate new aesthetic codes, new ways to narrate and present itself. Clubs, athletes, and fans become creative agents of a culture that crosses fashion, music, networks, and behavior, translating into the body as an expressive surface. Clothing, gesture, and image construction: everything begins to dialogue with what football evokes: pride, memory, identity, presence.

More than a trend, style in football has become structure. An additional layer in the game, where not only the score is contested, but the language as well. And where what is worn increasingly plays too.