As someone who does not have an affinity for any sport, reading about someone’s utter devotion to sport sure was intriguing. It is quite clear that soccer isn’t just a sport for its fans. It is their dream, their escape, a religion, and quite often a battlefield. Acknowledging this is important because when an artefact of popular culture is popularized by the people, especially to this extent, looking at why it reached this level of popularity is essential.
When describing becoming a professional player as one’s dream, Galeano emphasizes on the notoriety of the career. The author describes the way women desire the players and how children desire to be one of them. When a celebrity reaches this level of stardom is when fans begin to think of them in an non-human way. They become a figurehead, representative of all that encapsulates them, quite like the way players are described in this text. Galeano describes them and their different roles as if observing animals at a zoo. These aren’t real people, their sole vitality is on the turf. Even the ball is considered an animal that needs to be tamed. It is interesting because Galeano also suggests that a fanatic has the same sole purpose is on the field, but in this zoo, all participants are part of the animals.
This also ties into the way Galeano draws comparison between the duty of playing soccer and the duty of serving your country. The fans watch and attend the spectacle as a form of escapism and the player serves to engulf and entertain. This is the purpose of essentially anyone with a following. To maintain relevance, they need to please and perform. With this comparison, it seems as though the player is at the hands of the fans. However, Galeano says the fans are ‘led about like sheep by their class enemies’ (p. 33). This is an interesting quote that pertains to our class discussions of what makes popular culture. Here, the fans are the ones who uphold the spectacle while the upper class profits off of their love for soccer. The people popularize it and the corporations profit. It is an interesting interdependent dynamic, makes you question what threatens it.
My question for this week is who holds the power here? Is it the fans or the players?
Hi Jada- love your post.
I can relate in terms of not having any particular affinity for any sports. To answer your question I feel as though in this situation the players and fan both hold the power. On one hand the players are the performers and what people come to see for hours on end for entertainment. However, without the fans there would be no need some might argue or less of one for the players intensity and to perform at the level that they do. That’s just my two sense.
Hi!
Thanks for a very well-thought post. As to your question, I feel like it’s a mutual relationship, both needing one another. However, I still feel like the players and companies are the one’s actually holding the power, rather than the fans who popularize the sport. The way in which Galeano describes the reality of the fanatics as people not being able to find fulfillment in their everyday lives and jobs – if they’re even lucky enough to have a job – describes to me how in some places, especially where football is a question of national pride and identity, it also might be the people’s only source of relief, entertainment and sense of community, and thus its not like they would just stop being fans one day and stop supporting their teams, which allows the companies/players to really hold the power.
Hey Jada, great post! I think that with the introduction of how the British restructured soccer into management for the monetization of these players really tipped the power more towards the industry of soccer itself. The fans and players are just fanatics and lovers of the game who are more than happy to fill a role that was created and passed down through history. I believe that Galeano understands both the players and the fans are self aware of being profited off of and that is just how much they love the game. The repetitive religious imagery around a game that elicits highs and lows that can only simultaneously be described as a battle, a tango, a chess match, and like you said – a zoo. In that sense I understand why the beautiful game has turned into the dutiful game as the glamorous lifestyle romanticized around sports often reveals ugly truths.