Football Matters! What’s history’s most significant footballing moment?

It’s World Cup time, and whether you love or hate it football has a big place in history. So here at History Matters we thought we’d ask for your top historical footballing moments. Personally, I’m a football dilettante, the sort of person who tunes in for the World Cup and not much else. But football has turned up more than a few times in my current research on sixteenth-century Florence, and that’s made me think about its significance in politics and culture more broadly.

For Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, ruler of Florence from 1537-74, football was one means of keeping the people happy. This was a tricky task that had to be managed through ‘justice and abundance’, and civic spectacle, football included, played a key role. Among the lavish entertainments hosted in Florence by Cosimo’s predecessor Alessandro for the visit of his fiancée Margaret of Austria in 1533, was a match in Piazza Santa Croce, where historical football is still played today. According to one historian, Alessandro’s personal enthusiasm for playing football allegedly led to a broken nose (caveat: I’m still trying to firm up the sources on that one). It’s not implausible, though: athleticism was an important attribute for the self-respecting Renaissance prince, whose aptitude for rulership could be demonstrated by his physical prowess.