| Abstract: |
Since the birth of the game in 1863, soccer has been considered the sport of migrants. The sport spread throughout the world along trade routes that emanated from Britain, and it was introduced into every new culture that it encountered often by labor migrants. During the twentieth century, the worldwide movement of footballers reached a crescendo, and by the beginning of the twenty-first century, the largest and most competitive leagues in the world (in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) were comprised of some of the most cosmopolitan workforces found on the planet. Why were so many of the world‘s elite players plying their trade outside of their home countries, and specifically in Europe? This paper answers that question by examining the migrations of footballers throughout history, focusing on the South American, African, and European continents. It then analyzes the migrations of those populations through the perspectives of multiple theories on international migration. Finding each of them lacking in some respects, the paper then introduces the analysis of footballers as commodities on a global value chain, which proves to be an integral part of a soccer-systems framework that is necessary to comprehensively understand what motivates and guides players from their home countries to Europe. |
