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The Footballer

Centrale hal voetbalstadion de Kuip

The Sculpture

The Footballer by Chabot is made from reinforced concrete. The sculpture has been on display in the foyer of Feijenoord Stadium since its opening in 1937. The cast concrete sculpture is an exception in Chabot’s oeuvre; the artist usually carved directly in stone or wood. Reinforced concrete is an unusual material for making sculptures. The concrete sculpture is supported by a rigid skeleton of iron bars. However, this is not the reason for the footballer’s rather stiff pose.

Chabot consciously chose for these angular forms. He believed that football was a working-class game and so his footballer should have the posture of a worker: with exaggeratedly broad shoulders and strong forearms.

The footballer seems frozen in his pose. The only form of dynamism is supplied by the limbs that stick out in various directions. The body is highly stylized. There is little variation in the modelling of the forms and the few details are indicated with lines. Only the head is modelled more realistically.

Specifications

nicknames	Manus Gorilla
date construction	1937
location since	1937, Olympiaweg 72, Sportdorp, IJsselmonde
dimensions sculpture (hxwxl) in cm	200 x 100 x 100
material	Reinforced concrete, bronze