Hyundai showed up to the football party with robots. Seriously. At the opening of the new exhibition at Rockefeller Center in New York, guests were greeted by Spot and Atlas from Boston Dynamics standing right next to legendary jerseys and World Cup trophies. A coincidence? Hardly.
Hyundai Motor Company and the FIFA Museum have unveiled an exhibition called Legacies of Champions in the heart of Manhattan, timed to coincide with the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It will run from June 11 through July 19.
Hyundai’s materials make the point clearly: the project pulls together nearly a century of World Cup history, the brand’s 27-year partnership with FIFA, interactive fan zones and — this is the part to watch — technology exhibits. The opening ceremony brought together FIFA President Gianni Infantino, top executives from Hyundai and the FIFA Museum, and former footballers Marco Materazzi, Christian Vieri and Roberto Baggio.
But the most interesting thing here isn’t football. Or rather, it’s not only football. Hyundai brought Spot and Atlas to the exhibition — robots from Boston Dynamics, which now belongs to the Korean conglomerate. And through them, the brand is showing where it’s heading: beyond cars. It’s all part of the global Next Starts Now campaign, where football has been picked as the universal language that billions understand — the language used now to talk about the technologies of tomorrow.
Visitors are promised archival jerseys and FIFA artifacts, interactive stories about World Cups past, dedicated zones on the champions of different eras, and a separate display on the Hyundai–FIFA partnership. Running in parallel is the Be There With Hyundai campaign: children’s drawings from fans around the world will appear on the team buses of the national squads during the tournament across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
