Hublot brings together Bolt, Maradona, Mourinho and more stars for Match of Friendship

Sport360 staff 23:35 22/03/2018

With 85 days to go before the first match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off, Hublot brought together the friends of the brand to celebrate the beautiful game.

A Match of Friendship. Two one-off teams for an encounter that all football fans could have only dreamed of. True to its motto “First, Unique, Different”, Hublot invited Usain Bolt to play in his first game of football. The world sprinting champion, who is a football lover, put his feet to the service of Jose Mourinho’s team. Diego Maradona managed the opposing side.

The match was refereed by Nicola Rizzoli and his Big Bang Referee 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia smart watch. There are some sporting moments in history that live on forever and Hublot knows better than anybody how to create these moments!

Hall 4 at Baselworld turned into a football pitch and in the gallery we look back at the best pictures.

Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO Hublot, said: “This was the dream and Hublot has made it a reality! This match is everybody’s dream. Seeing the friends of the brand, legends on the pitch playing football, bringing together legendary sportsmen who have never played together for this exceptional encounter, creating two teams for a Match of Friendship, all this is more than we could have hoped for! What better proof of how football can bring people together!”

The format for a legendary game

1 – Match The Match of Friendship

30’ – of game time 2x 15’ with a 10’ half-time break

2 – Coaches Diego Maradona, José Mourinho

2 – Teams 18 Legends and Stars from the world of football

1 – International referee Nicola Rizzoli

2 – Masters of ceremonies, 2 Friends of the brand Michel Pont, Alan Shearer

1 – Watch The Big Bang Referee 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™

Maradona’s team

Tino Asprilla, Roberto Carlos, Hernan Crespo, Gianni Infantino, Christian Karembeu, Marco Materazzi, Gaizka Mendieta, Angelo Peruzzi, and David Trezeguet

Jose Mourinho’s team

Usain Bolt, Vitor Baia, Stephane Chapuisat, Marcel Desailly, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Patrick Kluivert, Richard Orlinski and Alexei Smertin.

A fantastic event with @hublot at #baselworld2018! 👏

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Everything was in place, from the 4th official’s panel to the official FIFA World Cup mascot, Zabivaka and the recently unveiled Big Bang Referee 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia watch that gave a live demonstration of its functions. Hublot’s smart technology gave international referee Nicola Rizzoli notifications from Goal Line Technology live throughout this Match of Friendship, just as it will during the FIFA 2018 World Cup.

According to protocol, the two teams exchanged pennants at the start of the game. Going beyond pure ritual, this was a symbol of a friendly game held under the banner of friendship. At half-time, a freestyle football demonstration confirmed that anything can be done with a football: a performance from the “Freestyle Football” group, made up of five Polish football freestylers with incredible skills, presented an extract from their show that has already toured the world.

At the end of the game, the spirit and contagious energy of football was kept alive with the Cuban hip hop of the group Orishas who set the pitch alight, before DJ Teddy-O—another friend of the brand—spun the decks to produce his mix for the evening.

Once again, Hublot is the master of football.

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