Arsenal immortalised at Sevilla's stadium
If you are travelling to Spain to watch Arsenal take on Sevilla, take a few moments outside the ground and you might just spot that a little piece of Arsenal is there already.
Arsenal have never played Sevilla in a competitive match, but suprisingly they have already made their mark at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, the home of our Spanish opponents.
A beautiful, and enormous, 470 square-metre mosaic was added to an external wall of the stadium during improvements made for Spain's hosting of the 1982 World Cup.
Designed by the Spanish artist Santiago del Campo Sanchez, and built by 25 craftsmen, the mosaic depicts the Sevilla club crest surrounded by pennants bearing the names of 58 clubs from around the world.
The teams immortalised in tile include fellow Spaniards Barcelona and Real Madrid as well as Sevilla's great rivals Real Betis (although their pennant is somewhat obscured by that of Stade Reims).
Other notable European teams to get a mention include Juventus, Roma, Bayern Munich, Anderlecht, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica. And from further afield Independiente from Argentina and Santos from Brazil.
Amongst all these great names from world football a simple red shield takes pride of place bearing a gold cannon under the name 'Arsenal'.
Sevilla are planning to increase the capacity of their 45,500 stadium, and initial plans are looking to relocate the giant mural to include it in the expanded stadium design.
All being well Arsenal will continue to be represented in this corner of Andalusia for some years to come. |