Few human activities allow us to give free rein to our desires and frustrations as much as football does. Beyond the figure of the referee—not even with the emergence of technology applied to the facts is there unanimity about justice—; that of the coaches—everyone would have made a better lineup the day after a loss—; or that of the leaders—in a business in which chance has a fundamental weight—; there are the footballers. When they take to the pitch, they carry in their boots something more than the illusion of the fans. And the thing is that, in some way, followers project their own lives onto them in such a way that they identify with those who represent their values—whom they encourage in a special way—and find rivals in those who embody the defects that do not fit. in the image they have of themselves. With so much passion and emotion, a peculiar ecosystem is created in which the footballer – who is often only reminded of the numerous privileges he enjoys – ends up being deprived of his main and essential characteristic: he is a person.
In football anthropology(Editorial Base), the anthropologist and former soccer player Alberto del Campo Tejedor offers an interesting essay that, through direct testimonies and the newspaper archive, composes a surprising image of soccer players, in which the professional advances towards the personal. Details such as the difficulty of putting down roots in a place when you don’t know if you will be there for even a year, the short duration of professional careers – and the consequent need to make as much money as possible -, managing the streaks in which the ball does not want to go in, the complicated work of the true leaders in the locker room, the stories of all those who stayed on the path to professionalism, the oblivion to which many athletes are destined when they finish their careers or the distance with the fans are some of the topics addressed in a book that approaches footballers through the lenses of anthropology.
