In Miami, soccer balls are turned into one-of-a-kind art as World Cup nears

MIAMI—On a sun-splashed afternoon in Wynwood, the city’s kaleidoscopic art district, Lili Cantero stood on a sidewalk daubing tiny strokes of acrylic onto the curved panel of a regulation-size soccer ball. Around her, camera phones rose like periscopes; tourists, locals, and gallery owners jockeyed for a clear view. Within minutes, David Villa’s jubilant 2010 World Cup goal celebration began to emerge on the ball’s surface, frozen mid-stride in black and white.

For Cantero, a 31-year-old Paraguayan artist who has called Miami home for the past two and a half years, the scene is the first of ten planned installations leading up to the June kickoff of the World Cup. Each ball will immortalize a different iconic tournament moment and will rotate through ten separate Wynwood businesses, turning the neighborhood into an open-air soccer museum.

“I never played the game, but I breathe it,” Cantero said, wearing a Spain jersey—an homage she acknowledged carries bittersweet memories for any Paraguayan whose national team fell to La Roja en route to the 2010 title. “Soccer is family, it’s culture, it’s love. When I paint a ball, I’m painting those Sunday afternoons gathered around the radio with my cousins.”

Her rise from unknown illustrator to globally recognized soccer artist began in 2018, when a pair of custom cleats she designed—featuring Lionel Messi and his family—reached the Argentine captain. A single photograph of Messi holding the boots ricocheted across social media, earning Cantero instant credibility among the sport’s royalty. Since then, Diego Maradona, Pelé, Ronaldinho, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and Inter Miami full-back Jordi Alba have all publicly praised her work.

David Lombardi, chairman of the Wynwood Business Improvement District, believes the timing is serendipitous. “We’re always refreshing murals, reimagining walls, and now we’re rotating art you can hold in your hands,” he said at the unveiling. “With tens of thousands of visitors expected for the World Cup, these soccer balls will be our welcome sign.”

Cantero’s process is deliberately tactile. Some designs demand days of layering color; others, like the Villa piece, come together in a two-hour burst of instinctive brushwork. She keeps a tablet propped nearby, studying freeze-frames of goals, saves, and victory dances before translating them onto the uneven canvas of 32 leather panels. “The curve is my challenge and my ally,” she said. “It forces you to see the moment in 360 degrees.”

The artist insists the project is bigger than personal acclaim. Raised in Asunción amid warnings that “you can’t make a living with art,” she now sees each finished ball as proof that creativity can travel farther than any passport. “When kids in the favelas play barefoot, that’s art. When a ball I painted lands in a gallery next to a Basquiat mural, that’s art, too. Soccer and paint both speak every language.”

As Wynwood’s foot traffic swells ahead of the tournament, Cantero will crisscross the district, rotating the hand-painted spheres every few weeks. The final ball is scheduled for display days before the World Cup opener, ensuring the neighborhood’s warehouses, cafés, and boutiques remain one extended tailgate for the global game.

“I’m far from Paraguay,” she said, wiping a streak of titanium white from her thumb, “but every brushstroke carries my home. If one child sees this and believes football—or art—can change their life, then the journey was worth it.”

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup