After the meeting I wrote about below and a subsequent email response from Dr. V, the issue of nationality and soccer has been on my mind. While this will not be the focus of the project, I think it is a question worthy of some discussion in the text. Europe in general is going through some serious redefinition of its idea of nationality and the meaning of national borders, and this effects the game equally.
As Dr. V put it, the "foreign" player may suddenly lose this identity when the EU expands its borders to include the "foreigners" home land. Essentially, his or her identity has become politically meaningless and is only a personal experience. The questions to ask are, how does this change a persons relationship to their home, to their new home, to the people in their new home? I could only speculate on this without actually gong out there, but worth noting no-the-less.
On a national level, more and more players with immigrant histories and parents are playing for the adopted home nation. With names like Castro and Gonzales in the German team this becomes apparent. Also the case of Ashkan Dejagah is case and point. He is Iranian by birth, but was raised in Germany and currently plays for VFB Wolfsburg. He caused controversy this past year when he refused to play against Israel. He was quickly accused of anti-semitism, to which he responded the decision was ment to protect his Iranian family in Tehran. But he also displays nationalist tendencies towards Iran, and has "Tehran" tattooed on his wrist.
So what does "nationalism" mean in this context? In Dejagah's case, he is playing for the German national team, and yet appears to be sympathetic towards Iran, identifying himself as such. Perhaps on this level of sports, nationalism is rather meaningless in the face of fame, success on the field, and a chance at winning a World Cup. It becomes a business decision for players. The young immigrant from a nation without much soccer power choses to play for the rich European state because they will potentially go farther (as a player).
On the other side, the European countries soccer associations (like the DFB, FA, etc) are simply taking the best players they can within the legal restrictions. Clearly they are not concerned with national identity as such; perhaps the assumption is that once a player puts on the national kit, they could be nothing but loyal. It is true that legally they will never be allowed to play for another country after their first national cap.
If soccer is really nothing more than a business, then there is nothing wrong with such arrangements. To suggest otherwise can also border on racism. How can you say England or Germany, Italy or Spain should have only ethnically "pure" nationals playing on the national side? Not only is that a very questionable statement, but also totally unrealistic in a multicultural society. The popularity of soccer, and the national teams place in the national psyche does however mean its evolution effects the popular view of national identity. When this is challenged (by having "foreigners" as part of a national symbol for example) there is often a negative backlash.
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