The 2014 World Cup in Brazil seems a distant memory now, but as the Premier League season is now underway, we thought it would be a good time to look back on some illustration that really caught our eye. To celebrate the 2014 FIFA World Cup, ESPN teamed up with Wieden & Kennedy, and Cristiano Siqueira from Sao Paulo, Brazil to create a series of posters for all 32 national teams. Being a big football fan, it was a dream project for him to work on, but the reception that the posters received, was a big surprise to him.

I realised the popularity of ESPN across the world, but I could never expect to see so much spontaneous sharing, blog posts, press and even football stars (such as Mario Balotelli, Joel Campbell, Tim Cahill, Clint Dempsey, among others) have been sharing the posters and changing their avatars to the posters on their social network profiles. In time, I hope to see this whole project as a statement of a memorable World Cup, that happened in my country and that I had the opportunity to contribute with my work.

Looking back at the tournament, with hindsight, we know England were not good enough and other big footballing countries fell at the first hurdle, but these posters capture the excitement prior to the worlds greatest sports event.

Here are just a few of our favourites:

     This just a few of the finished posters. To view the full set, check out the illustrators Behance page here