Details

Subject(s)

• Soccer—Portugal—History—20th century [Browse]
• Soccer players—Africa, Portuguese-speaking—History—20th century [Browse]
• Portugal—Emigration and immigration—History—20th century [Browse]

Series

• Research in international studies. Global and comparative studies series ; no. 16. [More in this series]
• Ohio University research in international studies. Global and comparative studies series ; no. 16

Summary note

• Todd Cleveland incorporates labor, sport, diasporic, and imperial history to examine the extraordinary experiences of African football players from Portugal's African colonies as they relocated to the metropole from 1949 until the conclusion of the colonial era in 1975. The backdrop was Portugal's increasingly embattled Estado Novo regime, and its attendant use of the players as propaganda to communicate the supposed unity of the metropole and the colonies. Cleveland zeroes in on the ways that players, such as the great Eusebio, creatively exploited opportunities generated by shifts in the political and occupational landscapes in the waning decades of Portugal's empire. Drawing on interviews with the players themselves, he shows how they often assumed roles as social and cultural intermediaries and counters reductive histories that have depicted footballers as mere colonial pawns. To reconstruct these players' transnational histories, the narrative traces their lives from the informal soccer spaces in colonial Africa to the manicured pitches of Europe, while simultaneously focusing on their off-the-field challenges and successes. By examining this multi-continental space in a single analytical field, the book unearths structural and experiential consistencies and contrasts, and illuminates the components and processes of empire.
• "With Following the Ball, Todd Cleveland incorporates labor, sport, diasporic, and imperial history to examine the extraordinary experiences of African football players from Portugal's African colonies as they relocated to the metropole from 1949 until the conclusion of the colonial era in 1975. The backdrop was Portugal's increasingly embattled Estado Novo regime, and its attendant use of the players as propaganda to communicate the supposed unity of the metropole and the colonies. Cleveland zeroes in on the ways that players, such as the great Eus衩o, creatively exploited opportunities generated by shifts in the political and occupational landscapes in the waning decades of Portugal's empire. Drawing on interviews with the players themselves, he shows how they often assumed roles as social and cultural intermediaries and counters reductive histories that have depicted footballers as mere colonial pawns. To reconstruct these players' transnational histories, the narrative traces their lives from the informal soccer spaces in colonial Africa to the manicured pitches of Europe, while simultaneously focusing on their off-the-field challenges and successes. By examining this multi-continental space in a single analytical field, the book unearths structural and experiential consistencies and contrasts, and illuminates the components and processes of empire"-- Provided by publisher.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-258) and index.

Contents

• Chapter 1 Foundations
• The Introduction and Consumption of Soccer in Lusophone Africa 22
• Chapter 2 Engaging with the Game
• African Practitioners in the Colonies 47
• Chapter 3 Following the Ball, Realizing a Goal
• From the Colonies to the Metropole 84
• Chapter 4 Successes, Setbacks, and Strategies
• Football and Life in the Metropole 126
• Chapter 5 Calculated Conciliation
• Apoliticism in a Politically Charged Context 176.

Show 7 more Contents items

ISBN

• 9780896803138 (hardcover)
• 0896803139 (hardcover)
• 9780896803145 (paperback)
• 0896803147 (paperback)

LCCN

2017024500

OCLC

982091678

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...