A 500-year-old soccer ball is heading to a World Cup game.
The ball, believed to be the world’s oldest football, was found in a bedroom once used by Mary, Queen of Scots, and has traveled from Scotland to Florida for its first display in the United States.
It is being loaned from the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum in Scotland, which called the ball “a true piece of football history.”
The leather ball is made from thick stitched panels turned inside out for a smoother, more aerodynamic surface. A pig’s bladder forms its inner core. It is roughly the size of a melon.
The artifact will be spotlighted on Wednesday at the World Cup game between Brazil and Scotland, the first time in its near 500-year history that it will attend a FIFA World Cup game.
“The world’s oldest football is an extraordinary object that connects Scotland’s rich sporting heritage with a game followed and loved across the globe,” Lucy Casot, chief executive of Museums Galleries Scotland, said in a statement.
“As the ball takes its place alongside the world’s best players and most passionate fans in the United States, it is a powerful reminder of the global reach of Scotland’s collections.”
The ball will go on display at the Coral Gables Museum in Miami as part of its exhibition “Diplomacy and the Beautiful Game: From Scotland to Brazil to Haiti.”
It was found during renovation work in the 1970s at Stirling Castle, lodged in the rafters behind oak paneling in the Queen’s Chamber.
Scientific testing dates the ball to between 1540 and 1570, the era of James V and the young Mary, according to the museum. Guinness World Records has recognized it as the world’s oldest football.
The museum said records show football has been popular in Scotland since at least the 15th century, and that Mary is known to have taken an interest in the sport.
“What we do know about Mary, Queen of Scots, was that she was a keen sportswoman, she enjoyed football, golf, jousting, tennis,” Caroline Mathers, director of the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum, said in a social media video.
“So I like to imagine that Mary had a kick about with this ball at some point.”
Mathers also joked: “We brought the ball over to Miami … and I think it’s going to bring us good luck,” Mathers joked.
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