UNIVERSO FÚTBOL
In 2023, Big Magazine and AS.com launched Universo Fútbol, a visual journey through Spanish culture seen through the lens of football.
The original idea was simple and ambitious: to capture the emotional universe of each club not only through its players and matches, but through its stadium, city, neighborhood, academy, history, supporters, rituals and memorabilia—the elements that make every club unique.
During 2023 and 2024, as we traveled across Spain, we discovered something deeper. The real strength of Spanish football extended far beyond the first team. It was rooted in the quality of its football schools and academies, in coaches developing players from an early age, and in clubs deeply embedded in family and community life.
In Vallecas, Cádiz, Vigo and Seville, every club revealed a completely different local identity. Yet beneath those differences, we found the same extraordinary ecosystem: children learning the game, families filling the stands, generations sharing the same colours, and communities built around their clubs.
In July 2026, Spain won its second World Cup.
That victory gave new meaning to the original project. It offered powerful validation of what we had begun to document three years earlier: the success of Spanish football was not born in a single tournament, nor was it only the achievement of one exceptional generation.
Behind the national team stood decades of work across thousands of football schools, training grounds, clubs, cities, neighborhoods, families, coaches and supporters.
The World Cup did not create the story. It revealed the significance of the story we were already telling.
Universo Fútbol was created to portray the many local worlds that together make Spanish football unique.
Today, it returns with a new purpose: to complete that visual map and explore the culture behind Spain’s second star.
UNIVERSO FÚTBOL
En 2023, Big Magazine y AS.com lanzaron Universo Fútbol, un viaje visual por la cultura española a través del fútbol.
La idea original era simple y ambiciosa: retratar el universo emocional de cada club no solo a través de sus jugadores y partidos, sino también de su estadio, su ciudad, su barrio, su cantera, su historia, sus aficionados, sus rituales y su memoria; todos aquellos elementos que hacen único a cada equipo.
Durante 2023 y 2024, mientras recorríamos España, descubrimos algo más profundo. La verdadera fortaleza del fútbol español iba mucho más allá del primer equipo. Estaba en la calidad de sus escuelas y canteras, en los entrenadores que forman jugadores desde la infancia y en clubes profundamente arraigados en la vida familiar y comunitaria.
En Vallecas, Cádiz, Vigo y Sevilla, cada club reveló una identidad local completamente distinta. Pero bajo esas diferencias encontramos un mismo ecosistema extraordinario: niños aprendiendo a jugar, familias llenando las gradas, generaciones compartiendo los mismos colores y comunidades enteras construidas alrededor de sus clubes.
En julio de 2026, España ganó su segundo Mundial.
Aquella victoria dio un nuevo significado al proyecto original. Fue una poderosa validación de lo que habíamos comenzado a documentar tres años antes: el éxito del fútbol español no nació en un solo torneo, ni fue únicamente el logro de una generación excepcional de jugadores.
Detrás de la selección había décadas de trabajo en miles de escuelas de fútbol, campos de entrenamiento, clubes, ciudades, barrios y familias, junto a entrenadores y aficionados.
La Copa del Mundo no creó la historia. Reveló la importancia de la historia que ya habíamos comenzado a contar.
Universo Fútbol nació para retratar los múltiples universos locales que, en conjunto, hacen único al fútbol español.
Hoy regresa con un nuevo propósito: completar ese mapa visual y explorar la cultura que hizo posible la segunda estrella de España.
Universo Cádiz
Cádiz, that peculiar team that carries the label of 'nice' wherever it goes. Its people, the people of Cádiz, the cadistas, have taken it upon themselves to spread their idiosyncrasy throughout the world. And it is that in the Tacita de Plata come together two strong passions that share many more things than they may seem: Cádiz (not football in general) and Carnival.
In this city it is not the same to talk about football as it is about their team, the one that every Cádiz citizen knows as soon as they are born that they will accompany them until the end of their days no matter how much suffering it causes them. Yellow and blue will mark their lives.
Universo Celta
In 2023, Celta will be celebrating its centenary. This entity was formed by the merger of the Fortuna and Vigo clubs and is closely linked to the word "Afouteza" - a term that cannot be literally translated into Spanish. It embodies a combination of qualities such as perseverance, courage, and pride.
The story of the Vigo team is a testament to their perseverance, as they are the eleventh team to have played the most seasons in the First Division and are close to reaching the tenth spot. Despite their unluckiness in winning their first state title, they continue to chase after it with unwavering enthusiasm.
Universo Rayo Vallecano
Vallecas and Rayo are inseparable entities. Rayo's unique identity has been shaped by the neighborhood, and the neighborhood's sense of community is inseparable from Rayo. As the only neighborhood team in Spanish football, Rayo has managed to maintain its essence over the past century.
The values of this neighborhood stem from its surroundings and community, ingrained with humility, sacrifice, and solidarity. Despite the presence of two major football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético, this working-class area has managed to thrive while upholding its core principles.
Universo Bétis
There are many ways to describe a football club: its stadium, the neighborhood that hosts it, its fans, its players, its myths, its history, its record, those unforgettable matches, those unimaginable goals... All this constitutes a sentimental heritage that makes unique to each club, which feeds that infinite and incomprehensible game that is football.
The prestigious Big magazine, winner of international awards and recognized as one of the most creative publications in the world, and AS, the world's leading sports platform in Spanish, have come together in a unique project: Universo Fútbol.
The idea is as simple as it is daring: capture the universe of each Spanish First Division club without words. Through the image and the sensations it provokes, leave in the retina of our readers a fixed photo of what each club is. Each snapshot evokes a specific part of what each club means, but it is all of them, in an impressionistic exercise, that narrates the universe that we want to describe.
We started this project with Betis, one of the most intangible entities in Spanish football, a historic and special club, whose people proclaim every day the pride of being part of something as difficult to explain as it is beautiful to enjoy. We started.
