A trip down history

A visit to the FIFA football museum in Moscow was a refreshing one. It took us a fifteen-minute walk from Arbatskaya metro station to the Hunyadi Motor Studio, where you have to go through a scanner, a security protocol in every important place you visit in Moscow. Upon entering the neatly arranged studio you will find the home and away kits of the 32 participating teams. Walk up the stairs and you will find the deep brown leather ball, used during the opening World Cup in 1930.

With all the balls of the 21 World Cups fixed on the wall, it is always tempting to take pictures. As you enter the exhibition gallery, the Jules Rimet trophy is there to greet you. Inside a glassed cubicle, it will bring back a lot of fascinating stories. Russia's legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin is next. His words will fascinate you most. “What kind of goalkeeper is the one who is not tormented by the goal he has allowed” -- reads a famous quote. Spain's David de Gea is perhaps the most tormented goalkeeper in this World Cup at the moment.

Pele and Maradona side by side is perhaps the biggest advertisement for World Cup's rich history. The boots of Pele on display, the gloves of Brazil goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel and the image of Uruguay scoring the winning goal of the opening World Cup against Brazil, are something like a trip down the memory lane. Leonel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are also on display at the end of the gallery. It was a constellation of legends and Zinedine Zidane perhaps summed up what football is all about. “Everything I have achieved in football is due to playing football in the streets with my friends.”