World’s oldest football makes first World Cup trip to Miami

A nearly 500-year-old leather football found in Stirling Castle has reached Miami for its first World Cup appearance and its first trip to the United States. The object, believed to date from about 1540 to 1570, is being shown as Scotland and Brazil meet during FIFA World Cup 2026.

The stitched ball was discovered in the 1970s during renovation work at Stirling Castle, lodged in the rafters behind oak panelling in the Queen’s Chamber. Scientific testing later placed it in the 16th century, the era of James V and the young Mary, Queen of Scots. Guinness World Records identifies it as the world’s oldest football.

The ball is made of leather and was originally inflated with a pig’s bladder. It is normally held by The Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum in Stirling, where it is described as the prize exhibit in a collection of more than 40,000 items. Its journey to Florida has turned the museum piece into a headline object of cultural diplomacy as well as sport.

In Miami, the ball is part of an exhibition at Coral Gables Museum titled Diplomacy and the Beautiful Game: From Scotland to Brazil to Haiti. The display is running until Saturday and is tied to the wider World Cup atmosphere in South Florida, where Scotland’s presence has drawn attention well beyond the pitch.

The ball is also being shown at the Scotland v Brazil match on Wednesday, 24 June 2026, marking the first time it has attended a FIFA World Cup game. Alongside the football, the Miami display includes other Scottish cultural material, including an Edinburgh fashion brand’s Harris Tweed collection, reinforcing the way Scotland is using the tournament to present heritage to a global audience.

Its appearance in Miami links the game’s earliest material history to one of its most visible modern stages. A ball once hidden behind wooden panelling in Stirling Castle is now part of a World Cup setting in Florida, where the past is being carried into the present as both artifact and symbol.