Some footballers make an exhibition of themselves. Not Thomas Meunier: he prefers to stage them instead. The Borussia Dortmund defender’s fascination with art has run parallel to his love of football throughout his life, so when the chance came to combine the two it was a match made in heaven.

“I set it up with my agent, who’s an open-minded person and enjoys art,” explains the right-back, who was first introduced to painting by his grandmother. “He’s also got a number of connections in the art industry and so we thought, ‘Why not try to do something?’ We created a business called Play It Art and it acts a bit like a sponsor. We recruit young talents and we ask them to use their talent to serve sport and football in general.

“Some of them refuse as it’s not really part of their identity to receive instructions for their work, and I understand that perfectly. Others try to use their natural gift to serve sport, through painting, sculpture or any other kind of art. We’re trying to create something with photography too.”

The initial result was the When Art Meets Football exhibition staged in the salons of Anderlecht’s Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, with the symbiosis of the two worlds summed up in a work depicting Barcelona icon Lionel Messi in the colours of the blaugrana’s arch-rivals Real Madrid. It is an image of crossing boundaries that suits the Belgian international, who has never been a footballer that snugly fitted the stereotype.

By the time he joined Club Brugge in January 2011 – stepping into the professional game for the first time – his love of paint and palette was already long established, thanks to a school teacher on an educational trip to an open-air museum in the German city of Saarbrücken. “I became aware of the importance of art and the way to understand art,” says Meunier, the memory bringing a smile to his face. “She was this kind of captivating teacher, because what she said was clear and detailed, and you could understand right away what she was getting at.

“Football is highly focused on reactions. It’s a bit more instinctive, while emotions brought to you by a work of art or in a museum are intellectual ones, in my view. They are things which must be understood and can teach us how to understand something. It’s about understanding and making an effort to open up your mind and aim for knowledge and discovery.”