Fußball: Nationale Identität und Formen von Maskulinität in Costa Rica

Abstract

Abstract

Football: Forging Nationhood and Masculinities in Costa Rica. This article draws on a concluded research project that examined football as a site for the analysis of the mutual constitution of nationhood and masculinities in daily life in Central America. In particular, the article explores the processes that surrounded national and gender identification during the Costa Rican team’s participation in the qualifying tournament for the 2002 World Cup Finals in Japan and South Korea, as well as the matches Costa Rica played in the 2002 World Cup. Conversations among fans, media chronicles, advertisements and emails are analysed in this article. By way of conclusion, it is argued that football’s dynamics of triumph/pride and defeat/shame provide interchangeable images for representing both nationhood and masculinities.