"Seniors" - nss sports football editorial

"My dad comes home from work one day and he says I've got this ticket but I've got only one ticket for the Wembley final" says Mike Millen, hugging a Tottenham Hotspur scarf. "As a 13 years old, I had to make my way from South London all the way over to the famous Wembley Stadium. And I was in awe." It was the final of the 1966 World Cup, the only one won by the English national team in London - an indelible memory for the generation that was lucky enough to witness this event up close and which still defines their passion for football today. George Aslanidis' project describes precisely this other era of English football through the eyes and memories of those who lived through these moments. An age group that is less and less represented in today's football, but which has inspired the London-based photographer.

"It actually all started when I photographed my grandparents for the first time a few years ago and had that experience. So I thought about this age group and how older fans are not so well represented in football. Instead, they would have very nice stories to tell and a very nice background, and I really wanted to photograph some people who have experiences that we don't have in football," Aslanidis explains to me how the project came about. "We worked with casting director Jasmine Perrier and she found some really great people whose stories we could capture and who felt comfortable enough to tell them on camera."

Stories that show a different football: "Back then it wasn't as professional as it is today, some of the best players weren't as focused on their careers. The fan experience was also very different, it wasn't as commercialised as it is today in England," Aslanidis continues. "Some of them talked about how it was much easier to see a game, that you just had to go and buy a ticket, whereas today you have to be an exclusive member of this or that club and the tickets are much more expensive." But even when football jerseys didn't play the role they have recently, fashion and collectibles have made many of the items that were originally intended to express passion for one's football club inaccessible.

"We wanted to see what jerseys everyone had. That was part of the game. But we also wanted to work with Classic Football Shirts and their huge archive, which is perhaps the biggest in England. So we picked some of my favourite shirts and some of the most iconic shirts and some of the interviewees who brought some really nice shirts, like Ray, who brought the Arsenal shirt from the 1993 Wembley final. Herbie also had a really nice collection of Manchester United kits, which was really nice."

Credits

Photographer / Director / Creative Director: George Aslanidis 
Casting: Jasmine Perrier
Stylist: Sophie Cloarec 
DOP & Video Editing: Riaz Gomez
Make Up & Hair: Ili Mavroidakou
Props Designer: Anna Makri
Photography Assistant: Arturo Sylar
Stylist Assistant: Yazmin Johnson
Art Assistant: Haibing Zhang
2nd Camera Operator: Oliver Silva Pinto Collins
Production Assistant: Antoan Korondilev 
Subtitles: Milestone London
Studio: Indra Studios
Thanks to Classic Football Shirts for providing some of the shirts for the photoshoot 

Talents 

Mike Millen (@W Model MGMT) (Spurs) 
Linda Malcom (@New Silver Generation) & Ray Roberts (Arsenal) 
Herbie Mensah (@Grey Model Agency) (Man Utd)
Richard Hay & Trevor Hay (Man Utd)