A pair of football shirts are to be released to celebrate what would have been the 90th year of Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and to mark this year’s World Cup.
The singer, who died in 2007 aged 71, popularised the aria Nessun Dorma when he performed it at the 1990 World Cup in his home country, and played football as a goalkeeper for his local team in his youth, as well as being a lifelong fan of Italian second division side Modena, in his home city.
Pavarotti’s widow and film producer Nicoletta Mantovani, 56, said: “Luciano was a man of huge passions, and football was definitely right at the top of the list.
“As a kid, he lived and breathed the game on the pitch, playing as a goalkeeper for a local team.
“Later, his incredible performance of Nessun Dorma became way more than just a World Cup soundtrack, it turned into the ultimate anthem for anyone tackling a challenge with courage and heart.
“It’s a timeless reminder that, no matter what field you’re playing on, the goal is always the same, ‘vincero, vincero, vincero’.”
One of the Pavarotti shirts – being released by Decca, the label he was signed to throughout his career – is yellow and blue, the colours of his favourite team, while the other features a Hawaiian shirt pattern, in a nod to his love of wearing them off stage.
Both shirts feature Nessun Dorma’s closing line, “vincero”, meaning “I will win”, on the chest, and the number 90 on the back, celebrating what would have been Pavarotti’s 90th year and Italia 90, where the BBC used the song as the theme for its coverage.
After performing Nessun Dorma with The Three Tenors – made up of Pavarotti with Spanish fellow opera singers Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras – at the 1990 World Cup, the trio went on to sing the song at three further World Cups in 1994, 1998 and 2002.
This year’s World Cup, being held in the US, Canada and Mexico, will kick-off on Thursday when Mexico play South Africa.
The releases come as Turandot, the opera which the aria comes from, written by Giacomo Puccini, celebrates the 100th anniversary of its premiere in Milan.
The shirts will go on sale on the Pavarotti Decca website on June 9.