Remembering Michael Jackson's peculiar relationship with football

The King of Pop loved the Nice shirt, had a statue at Fulham, raised money for Exeter City and was a very astute pundit

By Emmet Gates for The Set Pieces, of the Sport Network

“Good luck to all of the World Cup finalists this weekend!” read one post on Twitter. On the face of it, there was nothing particularly unusual about the tweet, given it was sent two days before the final and social media was full of similar messages. What was unusual was that this particular message came from the official account of the late Michael Jackson, together with a picture of the King of Pop in a Nice shirt from the 1979-80 season.

While not one of the most famous pictures of Jackson’s storied life, it’s well known among his loyal fanbase. It comes from a photoshoot with Jackson’s personal photographer, Todd Gray, in 1983. Jackson had four or five wardrobe changes during the day but, much to the photographer’s chagrin, he refused to remove the shirt once he had put it on.

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