Adidas has dipped into football’s past and present for its first big advertorial swing at the 2026 World Cup, rolling out a short film called Backyard Legends.

World Cups have always come with a certain kind of advertising theatre – the sort of films that try to bottle the feeling of what’s about to unfold. Adidas is first on the board this time, and it’s gone hard. The five‑minute-plus film stars Timothée Chalamet alongside a who’s who of football and cultural heavyweights: Lionel Messi, Bad Bunny, Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, Trinity Rodman, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Alessandro Del Piero. Subtle, it is not – but that’s kind of the point. 

This isn’t a quick-hit commercial. Chalamet’s character sets out to put together a team worthy of facing the yard’s most feared trio: Clive, Ruthie and Isaak, an undefeated group whose “win or go home” reign has seen off generations of challengers, including 90s legends like Zidane, Beckham and Del Piero. The myth keeps growing with every retelling.

Chalamet leans fully into the fan angle. “I used to dream of playing with these guys,” he says, recalling afternoons at Pier 40, recreating Beckham free kicks, Del Piero finishes and Zidane volleys. “I love this game, so it’s unbelievable to be doing this with adidas, captured with the best to ever do it.

There's blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances from Ousmane Dembélé, Raphinha, Pedri, Florian Wirtz and Santiago Gimenez, each cameo acting as another flex from the brand, harking back to commercials of old. Perhaps that’s what’s happening here though – there's the thrill of seeing generations overlap, sure, but where's the heart of two kids picking their impossible teams? Or the humour of scientists studying Footballitis?

There's no question though that what Backyard Legends possibly lacks in substance, it more than makes up for in star power. Once the dust has settled on its launch, there will inevitably be conversations about how this stacks up against past commercials, ads and campaign films. 

At its core, Backyard Legends is an exercise in scale and memory. It leans into the adidas “You Got This” mindset, but more than that, it taps into something familiar – the nostalgia of football from yesteryear, which itself brings an ironic sense of deja vu these days. Love it or not, this is World Cup hype done the big, messy, joyful way, so enjoy it for what it is.

Over to you, Nike...