Footballco launches Kia’s ‘First Touch’ documentary celebrating the stories of Official Match Ball Carriers as part of Kia’s FIFA World Cup 26™ Campaign

Footballco has produced a new short-form documentary from Emmy Award-winning director Alastair McKevitt to celebrate the children at the heart of its ‘Inspiration Connects Us All’ campaign for the FIFA World Cup 26™, of which Kia is an Official Partner of FIFA.

‘First Touch’ is the culmination of Kia’s ‘Inspiration Connects Us All’ campaign, which kicked off months before the FIFA World Cup 26™, with a selection process across 10 countries to find 104 Official Match Ball Carriers (OMBC) to form one borderless team at this Summer’s tournament - the 49th Team.

The OMBCs have been central to the campaign and the focus of the documentary. The chosen children have been responsible for bringing the match ball to the referee on the centre circle, appearing centre-of-frame during team walkouts to start the game.

Since the launch of the campaign, Kia, through global football media and culture company, Footballco, has been telling the stories from the rigorous global talent identification process across ten markets and celebrating the children during their journeys. Coaching the children along the way were a plethora of World Cup legends representing the United States of America, Mexico, and Canada, as well as Korea Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

While other official FIFA World Cup 26™ campaigns have centred on celebrities and iconic players, the 18-minute film heroes three children, who made it through the selection process to represent their countries - creating three authentic stories of human interest around a tournament where superstar players are often the focus.

Featured in First Touch are Andy, from Tampa, USA, Axel of Colima, Mexico, and Ibrahim of Nova Scotia, Canada. The film documents the children’s journeys, the role football plays in their lives, their motivations for wanting to be part of the 49th Team and ultimately their arrivals at and experiences of the FIFA World Cup 26™.

First Touch was led creatively for Footballco by Executive Creative Director Pete Liffen, partnering with Director Alastair McKevitt to direct the film (GOAT (Messi) for Apple and Welcome to Wrexham for FX). Two seasoned creative studios known for documentary filmmaking, Ventureland (Beckham and The Deepest Breath) and North of Now (Pepsi: Where’s my Jet and Paul American), were chosen by Footballco to produce the film.

Pete Liffen, Executive Creative Director at Footballco said: “When we came up with the 49th Team concept, we wanted to do more than just celebrate the Kia OMBC’s FIFA World Cup™ moment. We wanted the audience to see that whilst these kids from all around the world walk out onto the pitch as individuals, they are all connected by something much bigger.

First Touch delivers on that truth in such an authentic and beautiful way. As a business, we believe documentaries like this are an integral part of our own story and our ambitions to reach audiences through storytelling. It’s been a real honour to share this one with a director and our production partners, both of whom cared about the story as much as we did and who brought it to life in a way that only the best in the business could.”

Brandon Park, Head of Kia Global Marketing Communications Group, said, “At Kia, we believe football inspires and connects us all. Through the Kia OMBC program, we are delighted to give young football enthusiasts the opportunity to experience the FIFA World Cup™ stage firsthand. We hope this experience helps them take one step closer to their dreams and encourages them to pursue their aspirations with confidence.”

‘First Touch’ is being distributed across Footballco’s global football ecosystem, including GOAL and leading Arabic football media brand, Koora, which collectively reach over 720 million fans worldwide