Ronaldo, Jordan Henderson, Zlatan, Boiler Man: the best ever football adverts

A listener question prompted the red hot discussion on the Totally Football Show this week: which is the best football commercial ever? Well, James Richardson, James Horncastle, Alvaro Romeo and Julien Laurens nominated their favourites, and here they are, with a few additional ones thrown in.

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Nike – The Airport – 1998

The greatest of high concept sports adverts, surely, as Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, a gurning Denilson and an unfortunately included Romario (who didn’t make the Brazil squad for that year’s World Cup) loon it up in an airport with concerningly lax security.

Bobby More: pubs – 1960s

Here’s Bobby Moore absolutely schooling his wife at darts, and displaying an attitude to gender roles that perhaps wouldn’t necessarily sit right in 2020. And yes, this advert is just for ‘pubs’.

Nivea – tardy Liverpool – 2015

There are clearly a few continuity/plot problems with this ad: why did they go straight from the dressing room to a multi-storey car park? Could nobody have just called a cab? What event are only Jordan Henderson, Simon Mignolet and Raheem Sterling attending? But we stand by this: Henderson’s comic timing in the look to camera is absolutely immaculate.

Nike – The Cage – 2000

If they’re stuck for a creative way of deciding the season, they could do a lot worse than this. Has anyone got Eric’s number?

Nike – Ronaldinho and the crossbar – 2008

An early viral video that provoked much “is it fake or not?” discussion. It was, but it’s still enjoyable, and also apparently the first video to top one million views on YouTube.

Carlsberg: Ireland win the 2002 World Cup

Terrific “I am having a nice dream” performance by McAteer for this one.

Nike – The Mission – 2000

“It’s rounder.”

Sugar Puffs – Kevin Keegan – 1996

Sugar Puffs spookily foreshadowing Andy Carroll’s career with this one.

Brut – Kevin Keegan and Henry Cooper – 1973

Some first-class homoeroticism from ‘Enry and Kevin here. Just kiss lads. You’ll feel much better.

Nike – Zlatan and the chewing gum – 2006

That Zlatan. We would imagine giving him his own advert would really take the edge off his ego.

Nike – Write The Future – 2010

A three-minute epic, spinning forward to a future that…well, perhaps some of it will come true. We would’ve been interesting to be in that meeting when someone suggested to Wayne Rooney that he’d end up heavily bearded and living in a desolate backwater with his best days well behind him? How differently life has turned out…

Kronenbourg – Eric Cantona – 2013

Eric Cantona takes his acting career pretty seriously, but we’re saying he’ll never do anything better than the nod and look to camera at the end.

Ideal Boiler Man – the Hot Tub

Now, finally, this is a bit of a stretch, but since Ideal Boilers sponsor West Brom and the Boiler Man is sort of their mascot, we’ll allow it. See if you can decode the subtle symbolism of Clive’s hose going limp and only dribbling out a little bit of fluid.

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