If there are two things that people tend to like when they are younger and then continue to enjoy into adulthood then it might well be LEGO and football. Building random things when you’re a youngster is fun, with the LEGO bricks allowing you to engage your imagination and create whatever you can picture, even if it looks like complete junk to everyone else. Football, meanwhile, is a sport
that tends to grab those that love it by the bootstraps and never let go. Perhaps the only surprise about the prevalence of LEGO football stadiums, therefore, is that it took so long for it to come about and that so few are in existence.
What We’re Talking About
LEGO’s history with football dates back quite a long way, with all sorts of sets able to be built, as well as minifigures, the concept of which first came about in 1978. Given the fact that six LEGO bricks of 2×4 studs can be combined 915,103,765 ways, it is perhaps not all that surprising that someone realised that making real things out of them might be appealing.
The themes first began in the 1950s, with everything from space, pirates trains and dinosaurs being available. The company has also agreed several licences with film franchises, meaning sets of Star Wars, Batman and Marvel have all been made available to builders.
2 hours ago we thought it was a good idea to sort out some Lego kits to send to the charity shop.
We no longer think it’s a good idea!! pic.twitter.com/5FOEkiBu3o
— Ros Hutchinson (@ros_hutchinson) March 14, 2024
The company has also released some football sets. Remarkably, the first of these wasn’t made official until 2020 when Old Trafford became available for Manchester United supporters and LEGO lovers alike. The 3,898 piece kit offered a 1:600 replica model, with many of the intricacies of the famous stadium included in the build.
As well as the pieces the kit also contains 55 stickers that have to be applied precisely. When you’re finished, though, you have a miniature version of Old Trafford to play with. You can even pour a glass of water over it in order to mimic the leaky roof, if that’s your dedication to verisimilitude.
What LEGO Football Stadiums are Available
Manchester United’s famous Old Trafford stadium was the first one that LEGO released, putting in place numerous ingenious building techniques in order to get it done. With five main sections as well as the pitch, all connected thanks to Technic pins, the stadium can be pulled apart in order to see the details on the inside. Once the Red Devils had their stadium immortalised in LEGO, it didn’t take long before other clubs began to want to get in on the act.
On the first of September 2021, LEGO lovers could head out and pick themselves up a LEGO version of the Nou Camp, the incredible home of FC Barcelona.
Given the fact that the real-life stadium is bigger than Old Trafford, it is perhaps no surprise that there are more bricks needed to recreate the home of the multiple Spanish and European champions. There are 5,509 pieces in the kit, including those that help to spell out ‘Més que un Club’.
Of course, where Barcelona go Real Madrid follow, with the LEGO Santiago Bernabéu released in time to concede with the club’s 120th anniversary and the 75th year of the stadium’s existence. That was on the 17th of February 2022, with the key features being the likes of the tunnel, the dugout and the scoreboard, plus players on a bus outside.
Can You Build Other LEGO Football Grounds?
The interesting thing about LEGO’s various football stadiums is that, at the time of writing, only these three are officially available. They also aren’t cheap, with Old Trafford costing £249 when it was released, whilst the Nou Camp was £299. The Santiago Bernabéu was £309, thanks in no small part to the fact that it also had the most bricks involved in its construction, with 5,876 needed to build it.
That is when it comes to official kits at any rate. LEGO and football fanatics have been building their own versions of football grounds with LEGO bricks for years, such as in 2015 when Chris Smith tried to build all 92 Football League stadiums.
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A Crystal Palace and Halifax Town fan, Smith started out by building the Selhurst Park ground of the Eagles before moving on to the likes of Stamford Bridge and Anfield. He even allowed people to buy replicas from him once he’d finished figuring out which bricks were needed, with Chris’s Old Trafford possibly being the prototype for the official one that LEGO later released.
Not content with just building the new grounds, Smith also built the likes of Highbury, which Arsenal left in 2006 in favour of playing at the Emirates. Chris isn’t the only person to get involved with such buildings, so it’s easy to imagine that LEGO will look to release other grounds when agreements with clubs can be reached.