The Beautiful Game: The Untold Story

The Beautiful Game: The Untold Story is the inaugural exhibition for Holocaust Museum LA's newly reopened campus, tracing the overlooked relationship between Jewish life and the global game of soccer. Timed to the 2026 World Cup and eight local matches, the show examines how Jewish players, coaches and innovators shaped the modern rhythm, style and culture of the sport before, during and after World War II. Much of that history runs through Bela Guttmann, the Budapest-born coach who survived a Nazi forced-labor camp and later, in 1957, brought the revolutionary 4-2-4 system from Hungary to Sao Paulo, helping reshape Brazilian soccer ahead of its first World Cup title. The exhibition, which journalist Allon Sander helped curate, gathers rare artifacts from a dozen countries alongside immersive media and original photographs. The show opened with a free public preview on June 14 at the new $70-million Jona Goldrich Cultural Center in Pan Pacific Park, an expansion that doubles the museum's campus to 70,000 square feet. A grand public opening is planned for August.