The Globalization of Soccer

To the People:

The Prospect reviews superstar Senegalese footballer Patrick Vieira’s new autobiography and says it “confirms that soccer beats banking as the world’s most globalised industry.” I’d say drugs, but soccer and banking make fine choices, too.

“Vieira was only 19 and already captain of Cannes when, in 1995, he was bundled into a helicopter and flown to AC Milan’s club headquarters to sign a contract on the spot. He had no idea what the sums in Italian lire meant—not very much, it turned out—but signed anyway. His angry agent quickly negotiated a new contract, for about £300,000 a year, or four times as much as he was getting at Cannes. At Milan, Vieira rarely played. Watching the team from the stands, he got to know the Alsatian Frenchman Arsène Wenger, who was a regular spectator despite coaching in Japan at the time. When Wenger joined Arsenal, he persuaded Vieira to be his first signing. In fact, the player arrived weeks before the manager did, and was initially deposited in the reserves.”

By my count that’s a Senegalese guy captaining a French team, taken to Italy to play. He sits while in Italy, gets noticed by a French guy who works in Japan, and together they move on to England. Cool.

Full Prospect review here.

2 replies on “The Globalization of Soccer”

I don’t know if I’d say the American fascination with our own sports is dorky or exclusionary — after all, the Japanese, for example, have their sumo and that’s cool with me. More power to ’em.

One element of American sports culture that does rub me the wrong way, though, is that we refer to our league winners as “world champions.” The world series, after all, is NOT a global tourney. If we opened it up the Asians and Cubas, for example, than the “world champions” designation would be fine. It’s sort of a truism that for Americans, America IS the world, so this shouldn’t be surprising.

Newley: Looks like a cool book. Did it ever cross your mind that us Americans with our football-centric sports culture are kind of like a dorky, elitest sect that is only interested in our own exclusionary games? Might not the same be said of our singular interest in those things American?

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