Seriously, I kind of like soccer. I enjoyed the World Cup. Hell, I even bought 2006 FIFA World Cup for the GameCube on a whim.
So I mean as little disrespect as possible when I snicker profusely at the word "BIMBO" appearing on a Mexican soccer team's jerseys.
Now, since a picture of three happy guys with the word "BIMBO" on their jerseys is open to interpretation, I won't be too callous as to leave the photo without context:
Sergiop Santana, left, Jose Magallon, center, and Gonzalo Pineda of Los Pumas of Mexico reacts after end of the match against Velez Sarsfield, Thursday, July 20, 2006, during their Copa Libertadores quarter final soccer match in Buenos Aires. Las Chivas won 2-1.
Well, then. There you have it.
Bimbo, turns out, is short for Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican baking company renowned in Latin America for its bread. Sounds like it's the American equivalent of Wonder Bread. I envision little kids in Mexico love chomping down on peanut butter and jelly between two fluffy slices of Bimbo.
But seeing a sponsor – not just one which makes us laugh for gloriously xenophobic reasons – on the front of Pumas jerseys should make any American extremely relieved that USA sports have yet to deface jerseys of our beloved teams. With the exception of sports-related logos like the Nike swoosh, it's amazing that the jerseys are practically the last bastion of purity in our commercial sports world. Lord knows, I'll rue the day when the Yankees, in an attempt to siphon just a bit more bling into their bank, slap a likeness of Mr. Peanut over those signature pinstripes.
Remember how we cringed when Major League Baseball agreed to put webs on a handful of base paths to promote Spider-Man 2? Now imagine the Pittsburgh Pirates with a Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest likeness on the front of their jerseys.
In spite of the product placement, though, the world loves its fútbol all the same. Who am I to judge those Bimbo lovers?
Article comments
1 - Douglas Mays
Yeah, that is a part of soccer around the world. Sponsorship. Some team jerseys look like a NASCAR or Funny Car. The local Seattle Sounders (in a league the step below MLS) had Microsoft on their jerseys for a while. Bimbo, that is a good one
The sponsor I would like to see is on the Mexican TV stations is a show much like 'Punk'd' but much more harsh situations. It is call 'INFARTO'. whatever the Spanish translation is in English, I don't know. But it is funnier thatn hell.
2 - Pratyush
Haha.
3 - alex
Yo, Matthew!!. You´re right in about every thing you said in this column, except for one thing: I don´t buy that you like soccer. If you did, you´d know that these guys are not pumas players. They're chivas players. Easy to know by just looking to their jerseys and the MLS team's with the same name. Anyway, I agree with you about the excesive publicity in jerseys. we should feel lucky that FIFA doesn´t allow this kind of crap in national teams uniforms...yet.
4 - bread maven
Funny comment about Bimbo being Mexico's Wonderbread. As it happens, Grupo Bimbo owns America's Wonder Bread, as majority owner of Interstate Bakeries. So every time you have a Wonder Bread PB&J, you are chomping down on a Bimbo sandwich. Wonder who is having the last laugh?
5 - Jenniferwriter
Sorry, makes a good story, but Bimbo does not own any part of Interstate Bakeries, owner and maker of Wonder bread (and Twinkies, too). Interstate, based in Kansas City, MO, is a publicly-owned company that's been in bankruptcy since September 2004...
6 - FPR
INFARTO means heart attack. Besides its mexican tradition to put sponsors on their jerseys, and Chivas is the best team in North America.
7 - Fernando
That's chivas not pumas. Anyways read all the wonder bread, twinkies etc and read "Grupo Bimbo" on it, they are the largest bread manufacturers in the world, of course they won't tell you because "Bimbo" wont sell good in the US. but is all aover the world, as far as China. So you dont eat Bimbo bread or Wonder, are you into organic stuff like oroweat? Ha! that is also owned by Bimbo
8 - idk
go manchester united!!11
9 - ur mom is
you guys suck. manchester united rocks!!!!!!!!!
10 - Douglas Mays
Yeah, a case of oddly named sponsors for your team.
I remember back in the 60s when our youth teams would go to Canada to play (and the next weekend they would come down here, Seattle). One year we were matched up with a team whose sponsor was "Pinky Laundry". Us kids got a kick out of that.
I would like to be sponsored by Playtex.
11 - Dr Dreadful
Years ago when shirt sponsorship was first introduced in England, I remember stand-up comedians extracting much mirth from the fact that the players of one of the top teams (can't remember which one... Arsenal?) were running around with the word 'Virgin' emblazoned on their chests.
12 - Colin
That was Crystal Palace doc.
Brighton and Hove Albion raised some appropriate chuckles when Skint Records (I believe something to do with Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim, of that Parish) were, and possibly still are, their sponsors, with the single word SKINT across their chests.
Leeds United's downward spiral was aptly commented on by the switch from Strongbow cider (which was quite an unpopular choice in Tetley supping Yorkshire) to White and McKay Whisky. The current vogue seems to be for gambling websites. Top Man was quite a cool one for us.
Of course your 'Pies had the extraordinarily cool Blue Star of Newcastle Brown Ale for a glorious while and now it's everyone's favourite nationalised bank, perhaps symbolic again.
13 - Dr Dreadful
Of course your 'Pies had the extraordinarily cool Blue Star of Newcastle Brown Ale for a glorious while and now it's everyone's favourite nationalised bank, perhaps symbolic again.
The irony is not lost on me, Colin.
I still have my 1998 replica shirt with the Broon Ale logo on it - in my view, the best kit Newcastle ever had. I wear it sometimes, too - although here in America it makes me look like a referee!
14 - ab
manchester united rocks matthew, u dont kmow anything
15 - Dan Marrin
I see guys wearing Bimbo jerseys all over the city. In Spanish, bimbo means badass!