World Cup '74 Portrait #157 (Antonio Arias: Chile)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Our subject today is Antonio Arias, a photo sticker representing whom featured in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 albums that provide the original source material for this drawing project, & who was selected in the official Chile squad for the tournament, where he went on to play in all 3 of his country’s First Round group matches, after which they exited proceedings.

In common with most of the players to feature at the 1974 World Cup (as research reveals), Antonio Arias’s was not a name to register via personal experience of the television coverage, although I do at least recall Chile being present.

Catching up with some of the weekend’s current football developments, 3 matches between some our favourite teams across Europe & closer to home should be acknowledged:

The mighty Strømsgodset’s 4-0 win at Bodø/Glimt in Norway, Bohemians’ 2-0 victory against Slavia in one of the Prague derbies & Gainsborough Trinity’s late comeback 2-1 triumph over Stalybridge Celtic in the Conference North.

Badge of the Day #22 (Bohemians Praha)

This prized object from the collection represents the original Bohemians Praha, who folded in 2005, only to be soon resurrected (the successors being one of two current Czech clubs to be known, contentiously, under the name) & currently operating once again in the top division of domestic football.

As the club was known as Bohemians CKD Praha from 1965 – 93 (amongst many a name change over its lifespan), the pin badge’s vintage dates from this period, as historical artefact, with the object itself, & its lovely green, cream (aged from white) & gold colour scheme (like that, coincidentally, of the Lokomotiva Praha badge), being another of those tiny (particularly in this case), exquisite examples that cannot but help dandify a lapel.
The curiosity of the kangaroo emblem, in a Czech context, is, apparently, the result of a pair of the animals being presented to the club during a 1920s tour of Australia, which were subsequently donated to Prague zoo upon their return home.

Bohemians Prague would have appeared on the radar of continental football during the early 1980s, when the club reached the semi-finals of the 1982 – 83 UEFA Cup & won its solitary Czechoslovakian league championship during the same season.
The name itself has an obvious appeal, although being a more of a geographical-cultural fact than a signifier of arty unconventionality (for all that Antonin Panenka, the moustachioed king of the coolly chipped penalty to which he has given his name was a Bohemians player back in his day), & the green & white colours of the team’s strip ensured they would be ripe for a bit of favouritism, which, through various travails, prevails.