Guest Post by Laurent Dubois
There are some matches that end up seeming primarily the vehicle for one person to somehow attain mythical status. The Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern was written, it seems now, purely to allow Didier Drogba a form of poetic catharsis worthy of fiction or film. The fact that Chelsea won was itself a kind of oddity, for throughout the game it seemed the most unlikely of outcomes. But as he had against Barcelona, Drogba became the master of the unruly and the absurd: none of what the other team did, not of the great passing and possession and continual shots on goal, mattered in the end. Just Drogba did, his head and then his foot.
Drogbacite
May 22, 2012 By 2 Comments
Drogbacite
May 17, 2012 By 2 Comments
This weekend Chelsea play Bayern Munchen in the European Champions League final. One player whose contribution is likely to be decisive is the Ivorian Didier Drogba. Cup finals always end in triumph or disaster, and Drogba has made a habit of exaggerating those extremes, either scoring the winner or else missing a penalty or getting himself disastrously sent off. Above is a clip of Drogba doing the rounds of English chat shows. [Read more...]
Fabrice Muamba and English football
March 20, 2012 By 1 Comment
British football isn’t known for its compassion, and it’s already been an explosive season of racist slurs and handshakes denied. But the recent collapse of Fabrice Muamba, a midfielder for Bolton Wanderers, has shown a different side to both the professional football world, and its supporters, hoping for the recovery of a young player that everyone agrees is ‘a genuine, warm boy’. [Read more...]
‘Banana republic’
March 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
World Soccer magazine explains Russian football’s anti-racism strategies:
Anzhi Makhachkala have expressed their disappointment over an “idiotic” banana throwing incident involving recent signing Christopher Samba. The Congolese defender had a banana thrown at him from the stands after Sunday’s defeat to Lokomotiv in Moscow. Samba picked up the banana and threw it back. “I hope this incident will become a example of how not to behave for those children who saw it at the arena,” he said afterwards. Lokomotiv president, Olga Smorodskaya, a former graduate of the ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil’ school of public relations, pleaded ignorance of the incident. “There were no incidents at the stadium on Sunday,” Lokomotiv president Olga Smorodskaya said. “I was watching our fans during the match with great attention. They conducted themselves exemplary during and after the match.” Russian Premier League spokesman Sergei Alekseyev said the league would do whatever possible to “change the situation” with regard to the country’s appalling record of racism, but that legal action was not always possible. “The stadium in itself is a democratic environment,” he said. “The police can seize flares, but how can they seize fruit?” he asked.
Laduma
February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
During the summer I was interviewed for a new film about how a group of American fans experienced the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, including the qualifying leading up to it. I think I made the cut. The trailer for the film, “Laduma” is now on Youtube and it is hitting the festival circuit (it’s showing tomorrow night in Philadelphia, at a film festival in Pennsylvania next month and I know there’s a New York City screening also lined up in the near future). You can see my man Tony Karon, who co-teaches a regular ‘Global Soccer, Global Politics’ course (Fall 2011 syllabus here) with me at The New School, in the trailer above. Other talking heads interviewed in the film include ESPN’s Bob Ley and Sports Illustrated’s soccer writer Grant Wahl. Here’s the Facebook page for updates.
Where do footballers playing in the top five European leagues come from?
January 27, 2012 By 3 Comments
Written by Elliot Ross
The CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland (they study football) recently put out an interactive map trying to show where footballers playing in the top five European leagues come from. Unsurprisingly, West Africa’s big five – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Cameroon – dominate the African numbers, each contributing around 20 players. Mali has ten, South Africa four, and perennial trophy-hoisters Egypt just two. Ghanaian representation in the big leagues has more than doubled in just the last four years, but overall the numbers are pretty flat, bad news for anyone fretting about the “progress” of African football.
Political Football in Egypt
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Remember way back when in 2011, when I shouted out Egypt’s crazed football fans for kicking ass during and after the fall of Mubarak? Well, in honor of the upcoming protests marking one year since the initial #Jan25 uprising, it looks like the Egyptian Football Association has decided to pick sides–the wrong side–again. [Read more...]
The French advantage
January 16, 2012 By 2 Comments
Academic and soccer fan Andrew Guest previews the 2012 African Cup of Nations for Football is Coming Home. He points to the French influence on teams that qualfied for the finals that start later this week. The post that comes complete with a table illustrating his findings: “The French influence this year seems ubiquitous; 9 of 16 teams have Francophone history, the largest delegation of foreign coaches are French (4, compared to 7 locals—which is a fairly significant local contingent compared to recent tournaments), and 8 of 15 squads draw more players from French professional teams than from any other foreign league system (the 16th squad — Sudan — has an entirely domestic roster).“
Hugh Masekela’s football skills
September 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
This is a music break with a football reference in there. In 1984 Hugh Masekela’s single “Don’t Go Lose It Baby” (off the album “Techno Bush”) reached number two for two weeks on the dance charts. The song has a nice beat to do it. It can set any party alight. But it’s the video that I like more. It is probably the only footage of Masekela showing off his football skills. Watch from the 1:36 mark. Masekela also plays coach for a minute.
BTW, the video looks like it was shot in Botswana. Anyone can confirm that?
H/T: Antoinette Engel
