When I was growing up, there was nothing close to football on demand. I trusted the TV schedule to feed me the sport I loved, and somewhere between an Italian match and a Brazilian one, a particular show would revisit the greatest moments of football, again and again. Over all those years, among so many brilliant scenes, one stage kept returning: the Estadio Azteca.
Few places on Earth have a thinner veil between reality and eternity than that address in southern Mexico City. As the 2026 World Cup begins there, the historic stadium makes history as the first to host three opening games.
Here, the two figures who anchor every conversation about greatness were consecrated. In 1970, Pelé lifted his third trophy after a final in which Brazil did not simply win but performed—with a brilliance that television, broadcasting the World Cup in color for the first time, seemed to have been invented to capture. Sixteen years later, a crazy prodigy walked a fine line between geniality and immorality. When Argentina had a chance to vindicate its stance in the Falklands War against England, Maradona played the hero. Diego first scored with his hand, then with a run that is still regarded as one of the most beautiful goals ever. No other building held both men at their highest point as the Azteca did.
And as if two coronations weren’t enough, it also hosted what is still known as the Match of the Century: the 1970 semifinal between Italy and West Germany, which ended 4-3 after five goals in extra time. A plaque on the stadium wall commemorates this historic game and notes that Beckenbauer continued to play with a dislocated shoulder tied to his chest—a match that everyone, regardless of team, enjoyed.
Today, the stadium has a different name; a bank bought it and renamed it. During the 2026 tournament, FIFA covers that name with an artificial one, creating two layers of branding over a word that needs no contract. Yet fans and viewers still call it the Azteca, a name that outlives the imposed ones, reminding us that football remains bigger than the business around it.
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