Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is to donate one of his shirts to the Museum of London as part of their exhibit on the Black Lives Matter movement of this summer.
Premier League clubs paid tribute to the movement after their return to action in June, wearing the Black Lives Matter badge on their shirts throughout the Project Restart games. That has since been replaced by the slogan No Room for Racism.
For the first two rounds of fixtures after the Premier League returned to action in June players' names were replaced by the words Black Lives Matter in a gesture of solidarity with protests in the USA, UK and across the globe that followed the killing of George Floyd by American police officers.
Now one of Aubameyang's shirts paying tribute to the movement will be stored at the Museum of London as part of its Collecting COVID exhibition, in which the summer of protests in the capital and beyond are playing a key role.
The museum says it "aims to ensure that this social movement and pivotal moment is documented in its permanent collection as part of Collecting COVID."
Aubameyang said: "I am proud to be the latest black player to captain Arsenal and it's an honour to have the opportunity to donate my Black Lives Matter shirt to the Museum of London’s Collecting COVID project.
"I hope this will be remembered as the moment that football stood against all forms of racism and that it will inspire young people for the future."
The museum's COVID-19 collection seeks to reflect a period of enormous upheaval in the capital's history and includes physical and digital objects that will provide future generations with an insight into 2020. It will reflect on topics as varied as those working in front line services and parents who turned into home school support.
"We are very excited about the generous offer from the captain of Arsenal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang," said Foteini Aravani, the museum's digital curator. "Arsenal has always served to create a sense of community for people in north London, across the UK and around the world from their first match in 1886 to now being one of London’s most successful football clubs.
"This jersey, part of Arsenal’s Black Lives Matter tribute kit, will be a very important addition to the growing number of objects the Museum of London is acquiring as part of our Collecting COVID project.
"This contemporary collecting builds upon the Museum’s rich collection of protest and activism, from the Suffragettes to the Brixton Riots and from the Brian Haw collection to Occupy London. Aubameyang’s jersey will join these items to act as an important reflection and response to Black Lives Matter as a movement and its resonance through London and its people."
