[1][2] According to journalist Geoff McClure, Footballer "has special significance because, together with Drysdale's The Cricketers, it represents virtually the entire sports-related work ever done by our masters.

"[3] Born in the inner-Melbourne working class suburb of Carlton on 22 April 1917, Nolan grew up in bayside St Kilda, Melbourne's main leisure precinct.

Together with the Kelly series, Footballer has been interpreted as a "veiled self-portrait"—both men, like the artist, stand outside society in a "space no longer governed by everyday rules.

[8] His black shorts "share a singularity and intensity akin to Ned Kelly's helmet", while the broad-striped guernsey—bold against the amorphous backdrop of spectators' faces and vertical lines of the goalpost and boundary fence—prefigures the horizontal bars of escaped convict David Bracefell in Nolan's Eliza Fraser series.

The gallery acquired the painting in 2002 from a private collector based in England, with costs met jointly by the State Government of Victoria and Foster's Group.