The Social Interaction of a Men’s Soccer Team

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Recommended: Social construction of masculinity and feminity

The Social Interaction of a Men’s Soccer Team

In the field of Anthropology, there have been numerous studies on soccer and the different social plays that the sport contains. Groundbreaking and controversial writings such as Marcelo Mario Suarez-Orozco’s, A Study of Argentine Soccer: The Dynamics of Its Fans and Their Folklore (1982) study the fans and symbolism that surround the game. However, a key element that is often disregarded by anthropologists is the players themselves. Dismissed as the realm of journalists, most studies seem to shy away from the social interaction and symbolism that occurs within the team, and instead focus on how the fans view the game and the games role and symbolism within society as a whole. As a senior soccer player on the Occidental College men’s soccer team, I have a unique insider’s viewpoint on the social world inside a soccer squad, and this perspective can add much to the current argument about the presence of latent homosexuality within the world of soccer.

Soccer at Occidental is an intercollegiate NCAA division three sport. During the season, “the boys” practice together, eat together, hang out together, take road trips together, and many live together. As an example of this closeness, during the season I lived with the six other seniors on the soccer team in a small, cramped house. In the off-season, the team is not as tight, but teammates remain friends, hang out, party, and play soccer a couple of times a week. As a lifetime soccer player and fan, as well as a senior on the Occidental team, I can provide a unique insider’s perspective to the world of soccer. This insider’s view into the social lives and interactions of soccer players offers a contrastive view to some of ...

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...ritique or response to Suarez-Orozco’s theories. I merely wanted to examine whether they existed in the lives of the players at Occidental. I found no evidence to support his theories that the goal symbolizes the anus of the opponent, but I did find considerable evidence to support his secondary theories on masculinity and femininity. Other than sharing the love for a sport, I do not see much connection between what he studied, the fans in Argentina, versus what I studied, college players at Oxy. I was merely interested to see how his theories existed here. Therefore, I am not saying that he was wrong in any way, just that in America, soccer is slightly different.

Bibliography

Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo Mario. 1982. <![endif]>A Study of Argentine Soccer: The Dynamics of its Fans and Their Folklore. The Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology 5 (1):8-28.

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