In Ali's eyes

Can you tell us about your journey to becoming an artist?

Well I've been drawing ever since I could remember really, always had a passion for art in many of its forms, but I only started taking it seriously during the pandemic. Like everyone else I was stuck at home with a lot of free time, so I got a pen tablet and started taking it more seriously, you know, actively trying to understand the fundamentals and improve rather than just winging it as I'd had done previously. Fast forward a couple of years, I've gained a bit of a following and I'm able to do what I love for a living.

What is it about football that makes you want to create?

I think if you're a creator of any kind, we all love to express our biggest passions in our art, and that isn't any different for me. I'm obsessed with the sport so naturally whenever I want to create something 9/10 it's football related and 6/9 it's Liverpool related haha.

Football is full of iconic images, how do you make them your own without simply reproducing what already exists?

I try my best to put my own spin on it, by using my drawing style at first, but also by taking inspiration from the thousands of years worth of recorded art that we have at our display in 2026. Mixing and matching little bits that I take from different eras, art movements, etc..

And most importantly, giving the piece the time and research that it deserves, let's say I'm creating a piece about a Spanish player that plays for Fiorentina, the first thing I do is spend hours just searching different art pieces from both areas, whether it be paintings, sculptures, architecture, textiles, I use all of that when I'm making a poster. Like for example the Champions League poster that I did a couple of months ago, it's filled with inspiration from different aspects of Hungarian art and culture since Budapest was the host city. All those elements are then mixed, matched and then laid out in a way that is uniquely mine, so I think that, with my drawing style, is what differentiates my football work from existing images.

Your work moves between illustration, 3D, animation and graphic design. How do you choose the right medium to express an idea?

It really depends on what I'm feeling in the moment, and what I want to create. As someone with mild ADHD, I find myself always trying to explore different methods of creating because I get bored too easily if I just stick to doing the same type of work over and over again at a high level, no shame in it, I envy people that can do that, really, I just can't do it. But an upside of that is that I've picked up a lot of programs over the years, and as you said it helps me move between different mediums when I want to. So whenever I want to make something new, I ask myself what medium would suit this piece the most, for example, about a year and a half ago, when Liverpool were knocked out by PSG in the Champions League on penalties, I wanted to make something about the pressures of stepping up to take a penalty and the agony of missing one.

The first person that came to mind was of course Baggio, so to show how grueling and agonizing that long walk from the center circle to the penalty spot, I thought the best way to express that was with a minute long animation of Baggio walking, placing the ball, sweating, taking a deep breath all with the deafening sound of the fans in the background. I can definitely show those emotions with a painting or a poster, but I asked myself that question, what medium would elevate the piece to its best potential, and the answer for that particular piece was to animate it, at least in my opinion.

There is a very strong sense of texture, volume and movement in your work. Where does that visual language come from?

Yes, there's a lot of skill in being able to make something super tidy with a clean simple background, I have a lot of respect for artists that are able to achieve that look, it's just not me haha. I absolutely adore adding grit, roughness and imperfections to my pieces, something that makes them look more analog than digital.

And I can never just have a solid color background, I love filling every little pixel of the art board with something, whether it's side elements, patterns that I get from textiles, or just anything that I feel like would elevate the piece just that little bit more. I am a maximalist at heart.

What do you hope people feel when they see one of your football pieces?

Firstly, I hope it makes them feel something, whether it reminds them of a favorite footballing story, player, moment, title win, whatever that piece is championing, I hope it evokes a certain memory for the viewer. And I also hope that they recognize the amount of love and effort that I put into them, especially in the age of AI slop where people are trying to cut corners instead of putting in the work to get to a high level or companies trying to save a couple of pennies by letting a soulless thieving machine built by crooks generate "art" for them, in that age, artists like myself stand out because of the amount of heart and soul that we put into our work, and I hope that it does translate to the viewer.

Do you think being Lebanese gives you a particular perspective on art and football?

In some ways sure, by being from a country where top foreign football is very popular but local football is divided by sectarianism and corruption, I think that obviously gives me a different perspective on football and how I consume it to let's say a season ticket holder at the San Siro. I don't watch football games locally because of the sectarian nature of the local league, so I'm not going week in week out to a stadium, and being a part of a community all bonded by a love for a team and a single goal.

Which is a shame really. I'm someone who is very proud of my heritage and would love to see the growth of the sport in this country, taking it to the next level where for example, national team players don't have to work 2 side jobs to make ends meet, but hey, there are many more pressing concerns for Lebanon to take care of before focusing on football. So yeah, I think my view of the sport might differ from other people's, but the core reasons why we all love and sometimes hate this game are universal; in that aspect, I'm just like any football fan.