Columbia Pictures sponsored Atletico Madrid between 2003 and 2005 - leading to some superstar crossovers between movies and footballers
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We hear all the time about Hollywood stories in football - but Hollywood movies actually came to football when Atletico Madrid were sponsored by Columbia Pictures.
Between 2003 and 2005, LosColchoneros struck up a deal with the film studios to have blockbuster films on their shirts. Some of the biggest smash hits of the time adorned the jerseys of Fernando Torres and co, creating some nice nostalgia over 15 years later.
What's perhaps even more bizarre is that in an attempt to get the Atletico name out there, A-listers were photographed with their very own Atleti shirts, names printed on the back. It was a heady time indeed...
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One of the more iconic of Atletico's shirt sponsors of the time, XXX: State of the Union was a movie starring Ice Cube and Willem Dafoe with a particularly cool logo. It looked great on Fernando Torres, anyway.
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Closer was a very different kind of movie. As modelled by Jesper Gronkjaer (remember him?), Atleti were briefly adorned by a romantic drama film starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen.
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Hellboy might just have the coolest logo of the lot. The comic book flick looked excellent on the Atleti shirt. We'd call for a return to this shirt sponsor if only the 2019 remake wasn't awful (not just our opinion: Rotten Tomatoes give it an 18% score).
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Hitch was a romantic comedy starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes, about a love doctor in New York City who gives men advice on how to get the women of their dreams: presumably not with Diego Simeone-style team talks.
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...and Hitch himself from the movie even posed with Torres when he got his own Atletico shirt. Surreal.
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Not a memorable logo, this one. The Rundown was a 2003 movie starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Christopher Walken and Rosario Dawson. It was known as Welcome to the Jungle internationally and in Spain as Tesoro Del Amazonas, which means "Amazonian Treasure".
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Now we're talking. With great football shirts come great responsibility and for a while, Atletico Madrid played with Spiderman's insignia on their chests...
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...Peter Parker and Mary-Jane from the movie - Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in real life - even posed with Atleti shirts, too. To this day, they probably have no idea who or what a Falcao was.
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Gothika is a movie that follows a psychiatrist played by former Bond girl Halle Berry, who finds herself incarcerated in the penitentiary in which she works after she's accused of brutally murdering her own husband. Which incidentally, is what Diego Costa takes inspiration from when bullying defenders.
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Still, Halle got her own shirt off the back of the movie. We'd rather have that than an Oscar - though not sure she'd agree.
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And here's another star who got his own Atleti shirt, when the club used his Hollywood Homicide movie for their shirts.
"I think I must be missing the sporting gene," said Harrison Ford. "But in this case I'm very happy that a team of the stature of Atletico Madrid is going to help promote my new film."
Yep, Han Solo has no idea about football, bless him.
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Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is a movie in which you can probably guess the plot from the title: explorers go looking for an orchid and get attacked by anacondas. Note: does not star any snake who has moved between Real Madrid and Atletico.
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Awful name for a film. Of course it starred Adam Sandler.
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2 Policias Rebeldes 2 is the Spanish name for Bad Boys II. By this point, the Simeone jokes write themselves.
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Yes, that is the S.W.A.T. logo...
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...and that's right, Sam Jackson got his own Atleti shirt. Petition to get him to wear it in the next Tarantino movie starts here.
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Stealth is a great logo for a shirt - though the movie starring Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel isn't one for the ages.
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Unfortunately, this wasn't the Peter Pan movie starring the late, great Robin Williams but one starring Jason Isaacs of Lucius Malfoy fame.
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Possibly the greatest name for a film ever, Kung-Fu-Sion (confusion, geddit?) was perhaps sensibly titled Kung Fu Hustle outside of Spanish-speaking countries. Still, another great sponsor.
Mark White has been at on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, first as a staff writer before becoming content editor in 2023. An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also represented FFT at both FA Cup and League Cup finals (though didn't receive a winners' medal on either occasion) and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. He has written cover features for the mag on Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard, and is assisted by his cat, Rosie, who has interned for the brand since lockdown.
