“It's My Country I'm Playing for”—A Biographical Study on National Identity Development of Youth Elite Football Players With Migrant Background (original) (raw)

IMMIGRANT PLAYERS IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM OF GERMANY AND THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

2021

This paper is based on the research related to the immigrant players in the national football team and the formation of national identity in Germany. Recent analyses reveal that the success of an immigrant player in the national sports team has been regarded as a useful factor to attract public attention to the contribution of immigrants to the progress of the country. During the matches, discourses coming from the fans depending on the result of the game. They target immigrant players as a scapegoat in the situation of loss. Indeed, this is visible in parallel with the increasing strong critics in the media against these immigrant players. In this paper, the case of Mesut Özil in the German National Football Team is analyzed. The case study offers evidence of whether the success of immigrant players has been an important factor for their inclusion in the national identity in Germany.

Who May Represent the Country? Football, Citizenship, Migration, and National Identity at the FIFA World Cup

International Journal of Sport History, 2021

ABSTRACT The terms ‘citizenship’, ‘nation’, and ‘nationality’ contain different, albeit overlapping, meanings of belonging and identity. The history of the FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup provides excellent examples and cases to unveil these meanings in different historical contexts. Three overlapping categories of historical realities are proposed to understand the historical complexities of migration, citizenship and national identity from a historical sports perspective. The first category considers diaspora teams, using the examples of Italy in 1934 and Morocco in 2018. The second category examines teams from expanding and dissolving states, exemplified by Germany in 1938 and Yugoslavia in 1990. The third category explores colonial and post-colonial realities, illustrated by Portugal in 1966 and France in 2018. The relationship among national belonging, citizenship, and migration challenges the self-evident notions of membership and belonging. The historical concepts of ius sanguinis (blood ties) and ius soli (territorial birthright) are well-known markers and symbols of national belonging and citizenship. In nation states, the feeling of belonging is created by membership in an ‘imagined community’, which is often self-evidently bound by these markers. The proposed historical categories partly legitimize and pave the way for diaspora and post-colonial football players who will become more visible in national teams at the World Cup in the future.

From Bern to Rio: Soccer and National Identity Discourses in Germany

International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2016

This article interprets German national identity discourses through the lens of soccer. Germany's four World Cup championships came in a roughly 20-year rhythm and happened at critical moments and turning points in its post-World War II history. Looking at the four World Cup wins in 1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014 allows one to trace changes in German national identity that were reflected in the winning teams themselves as well as in the relationship of the celebrating public to the team and the country. International soccer events offer an opportunity to discern continuities and discontinuities in German national identity discourses. This article contributes to the literature by providing a comparative interpretation across six decades of soccer/national identity discourses. In such a comparative perspective, it becomes easier to see the changes and continuities that have characterized these discourses. Keywords Soccer. World Cup. Germany. National identity Soccer and German national identity discourses are intensely intertwined. In particular, World Cup tournaments bring into focus the powerful connection between soccer and national identity in Germany. In this article, I interpret German national identity discourses through the lens of soccer. Germany's four World Cup championships came in a roughly 20-year rhythm and happened at critical moments and turning points in its post-World War II history. Looking at the four World Cup wins in 1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014 allows one to trace changes in German socio-political discourses that were reflected in the winning teams themselves as well as in the relationship of the celebrating public to the team and the country. International soccer events let fans weave success on the soccer field into the broader narrative of the nation. Thus, they offer an opportunity to discern continuities and discontinuities in German national identity discourses.

European Football and Multiculturalism: An Analytical Approach on the Involvement of Immigrant Descent Footballers in European Football as the Reflection of Diversity of European Society

Jurnal Sentris

The involvement of immigrant descent footballers has become an important phenomenon for the demographic changes in the world, partially Europe. This phenomenon has reflected multiculturalism and heterogeneity in European society. The inclusion of foreign footballers into national teams has become common which leads to denationalisation of European national football teams, but the dynamics and complexities have remained under-researched. In this research, we will use the paradigm of constructivism to see Europe as a world society constructed by shared identities and values. This research will analyse how diversification and multiculturalism represented by football in nine countries who heavily impacted by immigrants could shape heterogeneity in European society. The results depict that the existence of immigrant descent footballers reflect the multiculturalism and heterogeneity of the European society.

Who Are We Actually Cheering On? Sport, Migration, and National Identity in a World-Historical Perspective

2020

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The diversification of national football teams: Using the idea of migration corridors to explore the underlying structures of nationality changes amongst foreign-born players at the football World Cup

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

The inclusion of foreign-born sportspeople in national sports teams has become increasingly common. At the same time, the assumed increase in diversity within national football teams has turned into a major subject of (inter)national controversy and debate. This applies, in particular, to the football World Cup, as the assumed increase in foreign-born players in national football teams detracts from the (homogeneous) nation-state basis of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) international football competitions. However, the actual dynamics and complexities of the presence of foreign-born players in national football teams within this context have remained under-researched. In this paper, we use the idea of ‘migration corridors’ to examine the underlying structures that contribute to the diversification of national football teams, in particular during the World Cup. We do so from both an immigration and emigration perspective. By connecting our foreign-born ...

Constructing 'German' Identity Through Sport

This paper examines the role of international sporting events in the depiction of German identity in the twentieth-century. Focusing on the 1936 Berlin Games, the 1972 Munich Games and the 1974 FIFA World Cup, it argues that the idea of what it meant to be 'German' was constructed and projected by various German regimes through these sporting events. As the concept of a 'German' identity changed greatly between regimes, it was clear that such identity was constructed and perpetuated for greater political gain.

Transcultural football. Trajectories of belonging among immigrant youth

Soccer & Society, 2016

Football can play different roles in the lives of immigrant youth. It can be a site for leisure, sport performance and socialization. Even more critically, it can be a place where to negotiate sense of belonging to a local community and to gain access to national sporting cultures. Football can also represent forms of exclusion and discrimination. This article aims to elucidate the meanings that participation in football hold for black immigrant males in a country of recent immigration such as the Republic of Ireland. The article discusses the findings of a long-term ethnographic study with a youth team based in a working-class area of Dublin, the Irish capital. The youth football club plays a special role as a term of identification for the local community. Teenage players of different African backgrounds are presented with the challenge of acquiring different levels of inclusion. They can attempt to appropriate cultural codes that define local working-class men on and off the pitch or they can practice forms of ‘resistance’ that emphasize their own racialized positioning in Irish society. Overall, these dynamics affirm the importance of grassroots football as a venue for young people’s transcultural encounters

Sport Migrants, Precarity and Identity: Brazilian Footballers in Central and Eastern Europe

Routledge, 2024

This book takes a close look at the experiences of migrant athletes, their precarious careers, and at what this can tell us about wider themes of globalisation, identity, race, gender, and the body. Based on in-depth ethnographic research on male Brazilian footballers and futsal players working in Central and Eastern Europe, this book helps to fill gaps in previous research on sports migration and global sports labor markets. This book uses life-history interviews to reveal how race, gender, and class are articulated in the everyday experiences of migrant athletes; how they express their religious affiliations; and how they navigate the relationships with injuries and pain that are characteristic of precarious athletic careers. This book considers the transnational networks that are essential in sustaining international athletic labor flows and the role that borders and emotions play in the lives of sports migrants and also the agency that migrant athletes can have in issues such as player development and retention. Presenting a more nuanced, ground-level perspective on sports migration and the sociological dialogue between identity, culture, and the body, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the socio-cultural study of sport, migration, globalisation, or global inequalities.