'Murals are the new statues' - Inside the rise of football street art in the UK

Whether painted hundreds of feet tall on the side of a building or sprayed impromptu overnight, whether sombre in black and white or a celebration in glorious technicolour, murals and street art celebrating British football and footballers are more popular than ever.

Artwork has been used to celebrate and demonstrate the changing nature of football fandom - no longer are supporters just drunken middle aged men hurling abuse from the terraces, but people from all races, communities and backgrounds, and street art - inherently guerilla and off-mainstream by its nature.

Similarly, footballers are becoming symbols of something different in society, figureheads of change and voices of a new generation, as demonstrated by artwork such as the Marcus Rashford mural in Manchester.

Rashford in the last month has been the subject of another piece of artwork in the north-west city, created by local artist, Reuben Dangoor, in response to the online scrutiny Rashford faces.

Dangoor said: "The piece was created to try and show the two worlds that Marcus is currently dealing with. On social media he is both abused and celebrated. It must be tough for anyone."

So why has street art become such a popular way of celebrating modern football? GOAL has spoken exclusively to artists and those involved in bringing these murals to life, to discover the true relationship between art and football...

'It's a sassy looking peacock!

In early April 2022, a new mural was unveiled in northern Leeds dedicated to progress towards LGBTQ+ inclusivity in football, and celebrating the LGBTQ+ fan group for Leeds United, Marching Out Together.

The mural depicts a peacock, an animal closely associated with Leeds United ever since the 19th century - the Old Peacock pub has right next to their Elland Road stadium since it was built.

The mural, which depicts a male peacock with his rainbow plumage and has the phrase emblazoned "Marching Out Together", adorns the East Street Arts studio on York Road, and is designed to illustrate the union of football fandom and queer culture.

For artist CBLOXX, marrying those two elements was not something which came easily.

"Initially, I felt like I was hunting for the links between the two [football and LGBT+ people]," they said, speaking exclusively to GOAL. "This is from my own experience of not being a football fan and not feeling like there was space within it for somebody like me.

"The notion of visibility is paramount, it is the only way people who have any sort of phobias change their opinions.

"I came at it from an angle of wanting to create a piece of art that has a purpose, that marries these two worlds. This is something that is within football but is hidden - we still don't have any Premier League footballers who are out, for example. It still speaks of a level of shame, and it is something we have to recognise."

Despite originally being from Huddersfield, just a stone's throw from Leeds and in the heart of the football-mad county of Yorkshire, CBLOXX - aka Jay Gilleard - found themselves struggling to accurately represent the true nature of fan culture in their art.

It was through working with Marching Out Together that they found a way of accurately represent what it means to be a Leeds fan and be LGBT+ - while evading some stereotypes.

They said: "I had to find a starting point that suited my visual aesthetic and could sit within my portfolio. I didn't want it to look like an advert, I don't feel comfortable with that, I wanted to honour each element.

"My starting point is always research, looking at the history and heritage of the club. I wanted the peacock as the centrepiece and then added other elements; there was a marching drum at one point, but then I checked in with the group [Marching Out Together] and they told me how they take the p*ss out of fans who use drums. I had to keep referring back so I didn't run away with ideas of what football fans are supposedly like.

"I wanted it to be about celebrating who you are, and hitting on the peacock as something Leeds is so affiliated with, I couldn't think of anything more appropriate.

"I also wanted it to be enjoyed by people who aren't football fans; it's about being proud of yourself, proud of your community, whatever it might be. It has to serve a purpose of uniting people."

Having come out as non-binary in 2020, CBLOXX has a personal connection to this mural too, with it helping to represent their own journey from someone who would actively avoid football as a child to someone who, earlier this season, finally attended their first ever fixture,

"We are seeing growth and progression within football - growing up as a kid in the 80s, I think if football were more diverse and celebrated the way it is now, I would have embraced it a lot more," they say.

"I'm from Huddersfield, and my association with football as a kid was to stay out of town on match days, there would be fights everywhere - I never felt I had a place within it. That is now being addressed, there is a different vibe, but there is a lot of work to be done.

"One thing that has kept me going has been meeting back up with MOT - I got to see some football [Leeds' 1-1 Premier League draw with Southampton], it was my first ever match. I missed the Southampton goal though as I was getting a pie, I have my priorities.

"I came out as trans at the beginning of the pandemic, and went on this weird isolated personal journey, but while that was happening this job came in, so I have a personal connection too."

The piece was a labour of love for CBLOXX, involving more than 100 cans of spray paint and a constant battle over weeks with the inclement and indecisive British late winter weather - not to mention technical and mechanical difficulties.

They said: "It's been a good year we've been trying to organise getting this together - we tried to schedule it for when the weather would have been better, and we got maybe two days of sun, then it started snowing.

"The scissor lift only reached halfway up, then the replacement broke - hundreds of weird nuggets have slowed it down. Those things make it more memorable - I'm used to things going wrong a lot on these projects!"

Positioned over the main road leading into the centre of one of England's largest cities, the mural will be viewed by millions of people over time. What does the artist hope people will think and feel when they see it?

"I hope firstly it makes people smile - it's a sassy looking peacock! I also hope a sense of pride, a sense of belonging, a sense of place, and a sense of connectivity."

'A time and a place encapsulated'

Since attending his first Leeds United game in 1982, Nicholas Dixon has been a devoted fan of the club - which meant he took their 2004 relegation from the Premier League, subsequent financial implosion and nearly two decades in the lower league wilderness harder than most.

As an experienced street artist, there were fewer better placed than him to celebrate Leeds' return to the Premier League in 2020, and particularly the idolised manager that the fans of the club held almost solely responsible for their rebirth, Marcelo Bielsa.

In the days after Leeds' promotion, Dixon painted one of the most famous murals in world football, the depiction of Bielsa as Christ the Redeemer, in the pose and clothing of the Rio de Janeiro statue.

Telling GOAL of his inspiration, Dixon says: "I've followed them through the ups and downs. With Leeds in the lower divisions for 16 years before Bielsa, they were in such a rut with everything.

"Bielsa brought not just a completely different style of football, but a different philosophy to life. He made everybody proud, and respectful of their fellow human beings.

"The spot where I painted it, my friend has a pet shop there, and we have spoken over the years about doing something there. As soon as we got promoted, I went down the next day and got it painted within a week.

"It's more than a football mural, it represents things which go far beyond football, and hopefully it will be there for many years even if Bielsa is not. The least we can do is paint him as the saviour."

The mural went viral on Twitter and attracted news attention around the world, and remains in Leeds to this day - even if Bielsa, sacked amid a poor run of form for Leeds in 2021-22, is not.

Bielsa departing Elland Road makes the mural even more relevant and important now, says Dixon, as the meaning of the art has changed, with the primary feeling upon viewing switching from joy and hope to nostalgia with a twinge of sadness.

"It resonates now even more deeply, and gives people time to reflect on what he achieved at the club and what he brought to the city," he says. "Each person has their own individual relationship with Bielsa - that was the beauty of him as a human being; you didn't need to meet him, but he had that mystique.

"It's a time and a place which has been encapsulated."

Dixon is currently awaiting permission from local authorities to paint a new mural in Leeds city centre to celebrate 50 years since United won the FA Cup. It marks a departure from his old outlook which was to keep his loves of art and football separated - something he credits to the modern role of the footballer as cultural icon, rather than simply a sports star.

He says: "I was always a little bit wary of doing football murals from an artist's point of view, but now you have a lot of people like Rashford standing up and making a difference, and people want to honour him by painting his face on a building. It's not just a football statement, it's on a humanist level.

"There is a changing face of football; going back a few years when I was painting on the streets, I didn't want to get typecast with football murals, but now it isn't just about a load of lads going on a Saturday afternoon on the p*ss, it has moved on.

"It is much more inclusive now; I go watch my nieces playing football on a Saturday morning and they love it.