Saturday 13 June 2026 8:00 am
| Updated:
Thursday 11 June 2026 12:36 pm
Adidas's 'Backyard Legends' ad is a star-studded affair
An unnecessarily serious review of the best ads around the 2026 World Cup, including campaigns by Adidas, Nike and Burberry, as picked by amateur footballer and professional creative Harriet Russell-Vick.Football ads in 2026 finally remembered a crucial detail: football is supposed to be fun. After years of ultra-serious slow-motion shots of rain hitting crossbars while somebody whispers about “legacy,” brands loosened up this year. There were laughs. Weird ideas. Actual joy. And, thankfully, fewer ads featuring a child staring dramatically at a floodlit pitch like they’re about to solve climate change. Here are the football campaigns that genuinely stood out to me. 1. Adidas: ‘Backyard Legends’ The big winner this year was clearly Adidas, which finally stopped trying to make football look inspirational and started making it look accurate. And they went for it this year with Backyard Legends, featuring Jude Bellingham, Lamine Yamal, Trinity Rodman, Lionel Messi, David Beckham and, for reasons nobody’s fully explained, Timothee Chalamet. Somehow, it worked.The whole thing felt like the football version of your coolest mate’s childhood memories: impossible skills, tiny cages, ridiculous confidence and one kid who definitely claims he once nutmegged a semi-pro.The visual style sat somewhere between 90s Nike chaos and a Netflix sports documentary with a £50m budget. The best part? It actually made football feel playful again.My Verdict: Big, stylish, slightly ridiculous but completely aware of it.
