Charlton Athletic's rich history is being showcased on the global stage this summer with a number of items from the club's Museum forming part of a major exhibition running alongside the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the USA.
Artefacts from the Charlton Museum have travelled to Kansas City for The Beautiful Game, a landmark exhibition exploring the relationship between football and the First World War, which is being held at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. Opened in April, the items will remain on display throughout this summer’s World Cup, before concluding in September. The exhibition has been organised to coincide with Kansas City's role as one of the host cities for the tournament.
Among the Charlton items on display is the club's replica Jules Rimet Trophy, one of a series presented to Football League clubs to commemorate England's historic 1966 FIFA World Cup triumph. Also featured are Woolwich Hospital Cup medals won by Charlton in 1919 during the First World War, offering a fascinating insight into the club's wartime story and the enduring connection between football and military service.
Ensuring that the Addicks’ story is prominently represented within the exhibition is long-serving Charlton Museum Trustee and club historian Clive Harris, who has curated The Beautiful Game exhibition.
Harris has researched the intersection between football and the First World War and has worked closely with the National WWI Museum and Memorial to bring together artefacts and stories from across the footballing world.
Speaking about Charlton's involvement, Harris said: “As a Charlton fan, it’s a great honour to be able to curate a significant exhibition at the World Cup and to be able to put some of the history of our great club in front of a good amount of people from across the globe. More than 250,000 people are expected to attend the exhibition between now and September.”
Harris continued: “My PhD is on the impact of the British Army in spreading football around the world. Most of the countries playing in this summer’s tournament are playing football because, at some stage in history, the British Army sailed in and had a kick around and introduced them to it!
“When Kansas City was chosen as a host city for the World Cup, the National WW1 Museum and Memorial said ‘we have to do something to commemorate football’ and they called me to help them do it. I was asked to put an exhibition together about all aspects of football and the First World War and I based it around themes including the origin of football, how football was used as a recruitment tool during the First World War and how football became a common language during the war.
“For example, even when they were producing pamphlets about how to attack German positions, they would use the offside rule as an analogy to describe how you fight, so every aspect of the First World War is linked with football in some way.”
Harris added: “The fact that Charlton can be included in an exhibition like this, with our items alongside artefacts from the likes of Bayern Munich, the French Football Federation and the National Football Museum, shows that we're in good company and highly regarded when it comes to our history.”
Click here to find out more about The Beautiful Game exhibition in Kansas City.