Every brand has an origin story. Ours starts with a penalty kick.
In the final of Euro 1976, Czechoslovakia and West Germany were locked at 4–4 on penalties. Antonín Panenka stepped up knowing that if he missed, his country lost the tournament on home turf against the reigning European and World champions. Instead of blasting the ball to a corner like every kicker before him, he ran up, and delicately chipped the ball straight down the middle as the goalkeeper dived out of the way. It went in. Czechoslovakia won their only major international trophy, and football had a new word for its vocabulary.
Why it caught on
A “Panenka” is now the term for any penalty taken this way — slow, looping, and dropped through the middle of the goal while the keeper commits to a dive. It is one of the most audacious things a player can attempt on a football pitch, because it requires total composure in the exact moment where the pressure is highest. Get it wrong and you look reckless. Get it right, and you become part of football folklore. Zinedine Zidane did it in a World Cup final. Andrea Pirlo did it against England at Euro 2012. Lionel Messi has done it more than once on the biggest stages in the world.
Why we named the brand after it
We built Panenka Prints around the idea that football is full of these moments — instances of style, nerve, and personality that outlast the scoreline. A 1–0 result is forgotten by the next matchday. A Panenka is remembered for decades. That is the spirit behind every design in the shop: not just recording that something happened, but capturing the moments and places that made football feel like more than a sport — the stadiums that shaped a club's identity, the chants that still echo on matchday, and the seasons fans talk about years later.
If that's the kind of football culture you're into, have a look through the wall art prints and retro T-shirts in the shop — every piece is designed with that same idea in mind.