For Faramarz Gosheh, football is more than the beautiful game. It is a manifestation of ritual, identity and freedom. “I spent eighteen years playing football, long before I held a camera, and those instincts still shape how I move and observe,” the Stockholm-based director and photographer tells us. With roots in Iran, Nigeria and Sweden, Gosheh grew up with the sport in his blood. “It was mythology. Henry, Ibrahimović, Okocha. They carried aura. To us, they were gods,” he adds. “My brother and I turned our hallway into a stadium, until a lamp hit the floor and my mum made us finish the final somewhere else. And that tension between imagination and discipline lives on in my image making.”

Gosheh has found a kindred spirit in South African stylist Robyn Agulhas, whose own youth was spent on the fields of the Cape Flats. “Playing football on Saturdays was part of the rhythm of our lives. Those days were about community as much as they were about the game, and personality always showed up in the details – the way someone styled their socks, the sneakers people wore,” she recalls. “I know now that my relationship to fashion began with football culture as an expression of identity and pride. So, as a Cape Coloured woman, it’s important for me to hold space for where we come from and ensure our stories reach the world.”