A relic with a royal backstory is getting its World Cup debut in Miami. The world's oldest known soccer ball, discovered in a bedchamber once used by Mary, Queen of Scots, is going on display in the US for the first time after traveling from Scotland to Florida, NBC News reports. Made of thick leather and smaller than today's soccer balls, the ball, believed to be around 500 years old, has been certified by Guinness World Records and is roughly five times older than the World Cup itself.
- The ball is on loan from the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum in Scotland. The museum's description of the ball: "It is made from thick leather panels which have been stitched together then turned inside out—making it much more aerodynamic. Inside there is an inflated pig's bladder, which could be topped up with air whenever it got a bit too soft. You can see some stitching on the outside—these are places where the ball has been repaired, which tells us it wasn't just for display but a much-used object which gave its owner a lot of enjoyment."
The ball will be highlighted Wednesday during the Brazil-Scotland match before taking up residence at the Coral Gables Museum as the centerpiece of the "Diplomacy and the Beautiful Game: From Scotland to Brazil to Haiti" exhibition. The artifact was found in the rafters of Stirling Castle during 1970s renovations and is thought to date from the youth of Mary, an avid athlete who is said to have enjoyed soccer along with golf and tennis.
"Somebody in the 1540s must have kicked the ball quite high into the ceiling and it got stuck," Stirling Smith curator Aoife McKenna tells the BBC. "The timeline aligns with Mary, Queen of Scots residing in the castle and of course it was discovered in the Queen's Chambers," McKenna says. "So we couldn't say for certain, but we like to think that Mary played with this ball." Museum director Caroline Mathers quipped that bringing the ball to Miami might give Scotland's traveling "Tartan Army" fans a little extra luck.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
