start of the World Cup<\/a> in June, Cantero will be putting her specialty \u2014 painted soccer balls \u2014 in 10 different businesses in the Miami neighborhood known as Wynwood, a place known for having turned warehouses into art galleries and where just about anything can be turned into a mural. It is the heartbeat of the Miami art community, and for Cantero, the marriage of her work and soccer seemed a perfect fit.<\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s the perfect combination in the perfect moment with the perfect people,\u201d said Cantero, who has called Miami home for about 2 1\/2 years. \u201cMessi coming in this city was \u2026 an interesting way to grow this sport here in this city and in this country. Because many kids, they look at him with so many aspirations and dreams and everything, so think they can make a decision to play this sport and also to grow in this sport. And I think that\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cantero\u2019s approach is simple: she believes soccer, like art, can bring people of different races, different backgrounds, different languages, different everything, together. Her biggest break might have come in 2018, when a pair of soccer cleats she designed \u2014 adorned by images of Messi and his family \u2014 were sent to the soccer legend. Messi posed with the cleats, the image of that moment went viral and Cantero suddenly had the game\u2019s official seal of approval.<\/p>\n
Diego Maradona and Pele both knew of her work. Same goes for former Brazil forward Ronaldinho, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Messi\u2019s former Barcelona and Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba, among many others. Her first stop for the Wynwood series of ball displays was last week when she unveiled one depicting how Spain won the 2010 World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel honored to be known for this art and what I do,\u201d Cantero said. \u201cI think art and soccer has the power to change the world. It changed my life, so I can tell that that\u2019s true. And when you go to favelas (a word used to describe impoverished Brazilian neighborhoods) and you see like the kids playing, thinking the only way that they could do something in life is through soccer, that\u2019s art for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wynwood is always bustling; art and fashion dominate the area, and there is no shortage of people working hard to ensure everything stays vibrant. The World Cup will bring tens of thousands of people to South Florida, and Wynwood wants them to know they\u2019re all welcome in that art district.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always promoting the arts, we\u2019re always changing the arts in the neighborhood, the murals,\u201d David Lombardi, the chairman of the Wynwood Business Improvement District, said at the unveiling of Cantero\u2019s first ball in this series. \u201cIt\u2019s vibrant, it\u2019s changing, it\u2019s alive, and people want to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cantero never played the game, but is addicted to the game. She showed up for the first unveiling in a Spain jersey \u2014 mindful, yes, of how that nation ousted Paraguay, her homeland, on the way to that title.<\/p>\n
Some soccer balls take Cantero days to paint. Others take her just a couple of hours. At the unveiling of this project, she even did some work \u2014 setting up a tablet to her left, looking at an image of Spain star David Villa celebrating a goal during that 2010 World Cup.<\/p>\n
With deft flicks of her right hand, she added that image of Villa, bit by bit, to the back of the ball, oblivious to the crowd gathered around to watch her work.<\/p>\n
Every soccer ball she\u2019s designing in this series will depict another World Cup moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in Paraguay, and everyone tells me you cannot make a living with art. And now I\u2019m doing this, far away from my country, representing who I am and my roots,\u201d Cantero said. \u201cIt\u2019s been an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP World Cup coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Lili Cantero thinks of soccer as family. The artist from Paraguay \u2014 someone who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-231132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-headlines","10":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}