What does it mean to be “French”? Can futebol truly help us understand brasildade (Brazilian identity)? Intellectuals, journalists, and historians have all tried to unpack brasildade, Frenchness, German identity, etc. through the “beautiful game.” Their analyses are crucial to understanding how soccer can shape racial and national identity. Their studies position soccer at the center of an ongoing process of state formation and empire building..
This unit examines how soccer has been central to the construction of national identity. Afro-Brazilian players like Pelé have been crucial to the development of futebol and the “jogo bonito.” Previously, that same black identity became a scapegoat for failure. In Europe, heated political debates swirled around the ethnic, racial, and religious diversity in the French national team ahead of the 1998 World Cup, hosted by France, as well as the modern Belgian and German squads (among others). Players of African and Caribbean backgrounds, in particular, challenged notions of a white, European nation. When Marseille-native Zinedine Zidane (born of Algerian immigrant parents) scored two headers against Brazil in 1998, they not only secured France’s first-ever World Cup trophy on home soil, but they shifted conversations about French national identity in a team full of players from diverse backgrounds.
The unit ends with an analysis of state uses (and misuses) of soccer and the World Cup, with a focus on the brutal military junta that staged the 1978 World Cup in Argentina
Topics to Discuss
- Evolution: Immigration and its impact on national teams [Feb 19]
- Tropical Modernity: the “Maracanazo” and the 1958 World Cup team in the shaping of Brazilian national identity. [Feb 24]
- The Age of Pelé and the Jogo Bonito; Afro-European national teams. [Feb 26]
- State involvement in the World Cup: Case studies from 1962, 1966, 1970, and 1978 (with a brief look at USA ’94) [Mar 3 & 5]
