The Uruguayan Football Museum

The Uruguayan Football Museum is situated in a basement of the Estadio Centenario located in the neighborhood of Parque Batle, Montevido. The stadium was built by immigrant workers in only nine months (1929/1930). It was constructed for two purposes: to host the inaugural FIFA World Cup (1930) and to commemorate the centennial of Uruguay's first constitution. The construction cost was one million dollars, and the architect was Diego Alberto Scasso. On July 18, 1983, FIFA designated Estadio Centenario as "the only historical monument of World Football."

The museum's small entrance area is designed around a souvenir shop that leads to a staircase opening out to showcase the various exhibits and displays. Dominating this entrance space is a twelve-foot-high black-and-white photograph of José Nasazzi Yarza, a defensive back who captained Uruguay when the team won the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and were the surprise winners of the Jules Rimet Trophy. He played for the national team from 1923 to 1937 earning fifty-one caps. It was he who lead Uruguay to its Olympic victories in 1924 and 1928.

The upstairs gallery profiles and spotlights other key personalities in Uruguayan football history. Administrator and journalist Héctor Rivadavia Gómez crafted the design of the "Copa America" in 1916, which was to become the official football championship for South American countries. As the director of the Uruguayan Football Association, he was the architect of Uruguay's being granted the opportunity to stage the 1930 World Cup. Also featured is Héctor Castro, who lost his right forearm at the age of thirteen as a result of an electric saw injury. His athletic soubriquet was El Manco, "the one-armed." He played for Uruguay on twenty-five occasions and scored eighteen goals, his most remembered being in the 1930 World Cup final. Beside the pictures of Gómez are photographs of Héctor Scarone, who, playing for his club team "Nacional," was its stellar player in their eighttimes league championship success and the first Uruguayan football player who translated the team's national success into global recognition. He had stints playing for Inter Milan and Palermo in Italy and Barcelona in Spain.

If the museum has a central focus, it is on the construction of the Estadio Centenario and then, very much the icing on the cake for a country passionate and devoted to football, the winning of the world crown in 1930. A series of massive photographs show the various stages of construction, complemented by pictures taken of Uruguay's winning games. The most memorable are four giant-sized snaps showing Uruguay's scores in its 4–2 win over Argentina in the final. There is a photograph of the opening World Cup match between Uruguay and Peru on July 18, 1930, with a crowd of 65,000. There are also illustrations of the July 27, 1930, semifinal between Uruguay and Yugoslavia with a record-sized crowd of 79,857, never surpassed.

The sweeping gallery collection of black-and-white photographs creates a powerful sense of a country buoyed up by its athletic heroes. There are harbor seascapes with festooned ships taking off across the Atlantic Ocean with Uruguayan football players seeking to do well in a far-off Europe and then rapturous scenes of huge crowds welcoming home the gold medalists of the 1924 and the 1928 Olympics.

The museum, perhaps unconsciously, charts changes in the nature, substance, and style of Uruguayan and world football. The photograph of José Nasazzi Yarza reveals an intimidating stature and physique. At 6' 0" and 187 pounds, he was built more like a pugilist or rugby player than a football player. In today's game, a defensive back would be slimmer with the lean musculature of a track runner. A particularly insightful exhibit shows off the football boots used at the 1928 Olympics. Historians have tended to describe "early" shoes as more akin to a laboring man's work boots. This is not born out by the Museo del Futbol. On display is something that does not look old-fashioned. The design is sleek and...