Creative Director of the Lionel Messi NFT Collection speaks out

While the FIFA World Cup comes around every four years, some opportunities are even rarer than claiming the championship. In a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Ethernity asked prominent Vancouver-based Colombian artist Victor Mosquera to lead creative direction for global soccer sensation Lionel Messi’s upcoming 50-edition NFT launch, on December 2nd.

Mosquera has sold 567 surreal, dreamlike works – including several at Christie’s – with a total sales value of $2,173,787,210 (1,712,210 ETH), at the time of writing. Mosquera also created stage and performance visuals for the electronic music duo Odesza. Most recently, he recreated the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

Messi is a superstar in world football (soccer for American readers) – having played for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. He completed 778 matches and scored 672 goals, with 303 assists. A player of this size (and 381 million Instagram followers) jumping into Web3 has the potential to rapidly accelerate the adoption of sports fans to Web3.

We sat down with Mosquera to talk about working with soccer’s golden boy, what his entry into Web3 means for sports, and the availability of blockchain technology.

What do you think about the relationship between sport and art?

Art is at the core of any entertainment outlet. It touches on music, theater, fashion, video games, movies and more. While sports are one of the greatest sources of entertainment for millions worldwide, art has always had the capacity to elevate the experience of friendly competition. The way I see art is closely linked to the way different sports are learned and practiced. Both require discipline, repetition and sacrifice. In a sense, the process of these two practices is deeply related.

Oh man! Football has been present in my life for as long as I can remember. I was born and raised in Colombia, and as many of you know, soccer is almost like a religion down there. It is very much ingrained in who we are as people. I can personally say that football has kept me sane through the hardest moments of my life – it’s that important to me. With this in mind, I don’t even need to tell you how much of a Leo fan I am, so working with the greatest footballer of all time is an absolute honor and a dream come true. This experience is unreal and will stay with me forever.

How did this come about? Did Messi and the team reach out, or was it more of a natural collaboration?

As a football fan, I have been trying to catch the attention of the sports world for the longest time. I think it’s become pretty common knowledge that I’m a big fan in my community. I met the Ethernity team in person almost a year ago and we started talking about football, everything happened naturally after that.

You recently did a piece for FIFA yourself, tell us a bit more about that

It was madness! I had the opportunity to create an official artwork with FIFA depicting the World Cup trophy and fly to Toronto to celebrate the first time Canada qualified for this tournament. I saw the trophy in person and hung out with Kaka as we talked about upcoming events. This was absolutely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life.

How much creative control did Messi have over the piece being sold? What was it like working with him on this?

I was lucky enough to have full creative control over the artwork. Having Messi’s full confidence in something like this made the whole experience even more meaningful. I am grateful to him and the team for trusting me completely and letting me express myself fully with this piece.

Where do you hope this takes place?

I feel that there has already been some art and sports collaboration in the last two years in Web3. These drops opened a window for sports fans to embrace new technologies as they evolve. As much as I hope to continue exposing new people to collectibles, it feels wrong to say that this collaboration is solely a boon to the space alone. This is a release that Messi and I share with everyone who is a fan.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.