National Football Museum

The National Football Museum is home to the world’s largest public collection of football objects—more than 40,000—and archives, with a rotation of about 2,500 items on exhibition at a time. Objects that shine a light on the times in which the game gained a foothold into Great Britain’s collective conscious include clubs’ varying rules for play, dating to the 1800s; the oldest surviving Football Association trophy; and a statue honoring Lily Parr, who played during World War I despite a Football Association ban on women.

Arnold Kirke Smith of England wore this heavy wool shirt during the first official international football match, between England and Scotland, in 1872. Credit: Hmickey via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).