What Spanish Soccer Means to Me
06/03/17
Spanish soccer was one of the most amazing spectacles that I have experienced in my entire life. From watching it on TV, to conversing in Spanish with local fans over our mutual hatred for Cristiano Ronaldo, to experiencing the riveting matches in person, it is definitely a culture of its own that makes Spain truly great.
When I attended Real Madrid's match versus Sevilla, I got my first taste of Spanish sports and fell in love with soccer. I was lucky enough to get a ticket through a family friend in Spain, and even though I only bought seats near the top of the stadium, I had the one of the most amazing fan experiences of my life. European soccer stadiums are built almost vertically, so from the top of the stadium I had the most amazing view of the field and all the fans around me. Real Madrid's Santiago de Bernabeau Stadium was extremely loud and exciting, with fans screaming and cheering throughout the match. Fans were so devoted to their team's success that they would clap and scream for even the smallest successes that their team had. Before the match, fans sang Real's most famous chant titled "Hala Madrid y Nada Más" (or "Hail Madrid and no one else"), and seeing the entire crowd of over 70,000 sing in unison in preparation for the game was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Throughout the match, fans wildly continued to scream and chant back and forth, which was particularly exciting because I was seated in between a section of devout Real fans and the section for Sevilla's faithful road fans. Fans from both sections would loudly chant and scream back and forth at each other when a goal or major play took place. However, the most amazing part was seeing Cristiano Ronaldo score his 400th goal for Real Madrid. I got goosebumps when I realized that I had just experienced a major part of Spanish soccer history in person (as he is Real Madrid's all-time leading goal scorer and the first player to score 400 goals in their club's history). If the rumors are true that Ronaldo may not return to Real Madrid after this season, I will also have witnessed his final goal scored at home in a Real uniform. Real boasts some of the greatest players in the world today, and it was breathtaking to see them showcase their skills on the field. Along with Ronaldo, Real's manager, Zinedine Zidane, is arguably one of the greatest living players to ever play the game, and I cannot believe that I got to watch them in person for 90 minutes . Another amazing experience was seeing the fans' excited reactions when goals were scored. Whenever Real scored, the announcer would shout the player's first name and the crowd would forcefully respond with the player's last name. The genuine eruption of happiness that fans portrayed whenever Real players scored was probably my favorite part of the match. I also enjoyed how Real fans cheered with a type of confident swagger (which I alluded to in my previous post) as if they knew that they were the best team in the world.
My most amazing experience on my trip to Spain, however, was the Atlético de Madrid match against Atlético de Bilbao because it was the final match of Estadio Vicente de Calderon's history. I bought a ticket to this game before I left for Madrid and splurged to get a nice seat, but I could not believe how great of a deal I got for the price I paid. Without knowing, I bought VIP tickets online for the game and arguably got to sit in the nicest seats in the entire stadium. With the president of the club's seating section to my left and the national media section directly behind me, I felt like a star sitting at field level in cushioned seats (in one of the only two sections with cushioned seating in the entire stadium) at midfield level. What's more, multiple current and former Atlético players were sitting in the same section as me, and I got to meet and take pictures with many of them during halftime. My favorite picture I got was with Atletico's current starting defender, Felipe Luis, renowned as arguably one of the greatest defenders in La Liga's history, as he was seated near me during the game because he was out with an injury. Not only did I get to see some of the world's greatest soccer players with my own eyes, but meeting some of the greatest players as well almost seemed like a dream. In Atletico's fans, I witnessed the most genuine love for a sports team, and this showed me what the Spanish sporting culture is truly all about. There was never a quiet moment during the game, as fans were always waving around banners, jumping up and down and screaming, singing Atletico's famous chant, and honoring all the memories of the stadium in its final match (Atlético is relocating next season to a newer stadium called the Wanda Metropolitano after 50 years in the Vicente de Calderón stadium). Fans loved their players and their manager, Diego Simeone, and cheered them on throughout the match. There were three truly amazing fan experiences that I encountered during the game that stick out vividly in my memory. The first was when the entire stadium paid tribute to Vicente de Calderon's 50 year legacy before the start of the match. On either side of the stadium, fans held up signs creating the years "1966" and "2017" to commemorate its 50 year history, while fans in the middle held up a long banner reading: "Paseo de los Melancólicos, Manzanares, ¡Cuánto te quiero!" or "On the path of melancholy, Manzanares [the original name of the stadium] how much we love you!" Even though I had never seen an Atlético de Madrid game before in my entire life, I felt like I was a part of their team and as if I had experienced all this history with the fans because of how welcoming and proud the fans at the stadium felt about their team's identity and culture. Secondly, the pure emotions of the fans were awesome. Unlike Real fans who cheered with a laidback, confident swagger, Atlético fans cheered recklessly and without a care in the world. Specifically, the fan section became so rowdy at one point that a team of policemen had to come guard the front of the section in fear that they would riot onto the field at the end of the match. As a result of this, fans throughout the stadium became so angry that they began to boo and denounce the club's president, Enrique Cerezo, in unison while numerous people cussed him out and made lewd gestures within 30 feet away from him. To some distant spectators, this could have been seen as immature and unsophisticated for fans to do such a thing in the final home game of the regular season, but I saw it as the genuine Spanish sporting culture in play: Fans were proud of their team and everything that it stood for, and felt angry that their team's leadership tried to prevent them from celebrating Vicente de Calderon's final home match. At the end of the match, the true Spanish spirit was alive again as fans all stood up and held up their scarves and team flags as a sign of tribute and ovation to their squad's fantastic 3-1 victory. Atlético is well-known for being a hardworking, internationally underappreciated, and defensively-minded team that wins through grit rather than style, and the fans stood up in unison as a symbol of recognition of these traits in their own lives that they similarly identify with. These shows of genuine love and fandom in this game, as well as those shown in the Real Madrid game, truly exemplify what the Spanish sporting culture is all about to me.
El Clásico
6/01/17
To further explain Spaniards' love for soccer, I will delve more deeply into the historically rugged rivalry between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. "El Clásico" is one of the most bitter rivalries in all of soccer that began in the early 1930s, and is much more significant than the game itself. FC Barcelona holds the lead in the overall series with 110 wins to Real Madrid's 97, and these matches have featured many of the greatest soccer players the world has ever seen, including Ronaldinho, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, and Zinedine Zidane, and some of the most spectacular goals in soccer's history. However, El Clásico signifies much more than a historic rivalry between two powerhouse clubs. It demonstrates the political climate of Spain in the 1930s leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War as well as the clashing political messages that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have stood for for over 80 years. In this post, I will delve more deeply into the cultural, historical, and political significance of these two teams that I alluded to in my first post.
To begin, Real Madrid has been historically known for favoring the centralist tendencies of late dictator Francisco Franco, but as Jessica Lopez of Wesleyan University explains in her thesis titled Real Madrid and FC Barcelona: A new narrative of football rivalry in 1930s Spain that the story of Real Madrid is a rich one, and it would be
unfair to dismiss it merely as one of fascism and favoritism". Spanish soccer became very politicized during the 1930s. One reason for this is because Franco utilized Real Madrid as a media vehicle to unify Spain as one team and one country, which made them a sort of scapegoat upon which other regional teams (such as FC Barcelona) to project their hatred. In reality, Madrid was a Republican city that actively fought against Franco's military takeover, but following his victory he crowned Madrid as the new capital of Spain and similarly crowned Real Madrid as his team and the country's team that stood for the principles that his government stood for. Being the only team in the country at the time to carry "Madrid" within their team name, the team held a unique "madrileño" identification (rather than an "español" identification) that fans were very proud of. In turn, from the outside-looking-in it seemed like Real Madrid played with a selfish sort of "Madrid versus the world" attitude that made opponents project hatred onto them even more. The regional geography of Spain contributed to this further, as the region of Madrid was seen as the centralizing force of Spain that impeded regions like Catalonia (the region Barcelona is in) from gaining sovereignty, causing further polarization between the regions and soccer teams. As Real Madrid gained increased success on the field starting in 1933, the team became increasingly viewed as the outright symbol of Spain and Spanish soccer, causing Catalonians to feel increased persecution from their country.
According to Lopez, up until and during Franco’s rule, Catalonians saw Madrid as a type of “artificial city” and Real Madrid as “el equipo de millón”-or the team of riches through financial capitalism- that was supported by the centralist government. In reality, Real Madrid had no actual connection with Franco’s dictatorship itself, but Franco had the media project this spurious relationship in order to promote a “one team for one Spain” mentality in hopes of unifying Spain more quickly through soccer. In turn, outsiders-looking-in saw Real Madrid as the enemy of Spain that also stood for fascism and centralism, so FC Barcelona’s rivalry with them grew even more bitter. Catalonians further projected their hatred onto Real Madrid because Franco suppressed Catalonia’s newfound rights as an autonomous region when he became dictator (because Catalonia had just created a democratic government before Franco came to power that was more supportive of its autonomous rights). FC Barcelona fans saw Real Madrid as everything that Franco’s Spain stood for and they projected their hatred onto Real during their soccer rivalry. In 1936, the El Clásico rivalry intensified even more after Franco’s Nationalist forces killed FC Barcelona’s president, Josep Sunyol. An outspoken Catalonian Parliament member who was well-loved by Catalonians and who had been a part of FC Barcelona for ten years prior, he was elected president of the club in 1935 and promised that politics would never get in the way of his club. Soon after, he was assassinated by Nationalist forces for accidentally driving into rebel territory without permission, and he immediately became a martyr for the regionalist identity of Catalonia in the face of Franco’s oppression. Although Madrid was a Republican region that fought against Franco until he made it the capital of his empire, Spaniards saw Madrid as the epitome of fascism and inequality and thus projected that onto Madrid’s club as well. From my own experience, this still seems visible today to an extent, as many Spaniards see teams like FC Barcelona as a symbol of regional autonomy and freedom while Real Madrid is seen as a team connected to centralism and the Spanish government.
Recently, FC Barcelona fans have carried a sense of discontent towards Real Madrid for being a team that has the power to buy the best players whenever they want to, which has fueled the El Clásico rivalry even further. Specifically, the infamous Luis Figo transfer in 2000 caused increased animosity from FC Barcelona fans towards the Real Madrid club. Co-captain of FC Barcelona at the time, Figo was offered $2.4 million by then Real Madrid presidential candidate, Florentino Pérez, to sign with Real if he won the presidential election. When asked about this, Figo denied the report and pledged his undying loyalty to FC Barcelona. However, if Figo broke the contract FC Barcelona would have to pay Real Madrid a $30 million fee and so they let him go. When he returned to Barcelona the next season- this time in a Real Madrid jersey- he was greeted with vicious boos and hatred by his former team’s fans. This was such a controversial move at time, as it was almost unheard of for someone to switch from FC Barcelona to Real Madrid or vice-versa, causing the rivalry to further escalate.
In my opinion, El Clásico is the most exciting rivalry in all of sports because of the historical, political, and cultural antagonism between the two squads as well as the quality of the contests. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona perennially own some of the best soccer players in the world, and their 2002 match in the Champions League semifinals has been dubbed by many as the best soccer match of the century. It is my dream to go to an El Clásico match in my lifetime and experience this bitter rivalry in person. Attending a Real Madrid game while I was in Madrid was an experience of a lifetime, and I am looking forward to attending an FC Barcelona game in Barcelona to compare and contrast how their fans act during games. Real Madrid’s fans were extremely loud, passionate, and excited, but I got a rather cocky vibe from some of their fans and players as if they were better than anyone else in soccer (which may be true this year, as Real Madrid took home the La Liga trophy and the Champions League trophy during my four week stay). Regardless, I love everything about El Clásico and how it has been influenced throughout history and I cannot wait to watch the next match on TV.
La Cultura de las Corridas de Toros
5/26/17
The ultimate traditional cultural experience in Spain. The epitome of strength, bravery, and wisdom on a sporting field. The "formidable mixture... of courage and grace" according to the late German actress, Marlene Dietrich. The senseless exploitation and murder of innocent animals. A dangerous sport that involves cruelty towards both the animal and sometimes the men involved. A terrible tradition that should be banned.
These are some of the descriptions of one of the most polemic events held today in Spain: the bullfight. Bullfighting is a tradition that had dated back to as early as 2000 B.C., but has been facing increasing criticism recently for being an inhumane practice that is wildly unethical to put on in this day and age. The modern style of bullfighting began in the early 1700's as a spectacle of courage and discipline in which six bulls are killed per match by a well-trained matador who flirts with death by calmly toying with the bull with his cape while standing inches away from his horns. The 37% of Spaniards that support the sport describe it as a masterful art that actually allows bulls that would have otherwise been sent to a slaughterhouse to live an extra year and not be subjected to the torture that other bulls face before being slaughtered. However, the vast majority of Spaniards (especially the millennial generation) opposes this public display of killing and torturing animals and compares it to the inhumane practice of dog fighting that was popular in Europe up until the 19th century when it was soon after banned for being a barbaric and malicious practice.
From my own point of view, I can understand both sides of the issue. Being a quarter Spanish myself, I love learning about the Spanish culture and its most sacred traditions. When I attended La Corrida de Toros de San Isidro, one of the most prominent bullfights of the year, and it was truly amazing to see fans of all ages cheering and chanting as the matadors masterfully maneuvered around the bulls as if they had complete control of the bulls' movements. Similarly, I admired the valor of the matadors as they seemingly effortlessly interacted with and later killed the bulls, even after a couple of the matadors were almost viciously gored or trampled upon. Further, I admired the fearless spirit of the bull because it continued to attack and survive with all its efforts regardless of the obstacles in front of it. The bull is the most popular symbol of Spanish culture and it rightfully symbolizes the country's pride and willingness to fight for its rights and beliefs. However, I also felt for the opponents of bullfighting because the way that the bull suffered and was tortured up until its death seemed truly inhumane. I had never seen an animal be killed before the bullfight, and it made my stomach churn to see the life being sucked out of it by a swift stab to its neck, and it made my stomach churn even more to see everyone cheering its death. This made me wonder: Why do supporters of bull fights enjoy watching this spectacle of death so much, and how does this play in to the overall sporting culture of Spain?
Supporters of bullfights enjoy bullfights because the sport represents the distinctive pride of the nation and its culture that is so unique. To Spaniards, it is much more than a sport and instead a form of art that captures many aspects that Spaniards stand for, including pride, heroism, life, and triumph.
According to University of California Berkeley's Stanley Brandes, bullfights are an epitome of the "nationalistic personality" of Spain. He further explains that the bull truly became a symbol of Spanish national heritage after the Osborne Group advertised for their company with large billboards of black bulls despite a court ruling in 1994 prohibiting large billboards from being used near major highways. The Osborne Group continued to utilize the bull in larger and larger advertisements and fought the court ruling up until the Spanish Supreme Court, where the judges ruled in the Osborne Group's favor on the grounds that had become more than an advertisement and instead an integral part of the country side that "commemorates 'la fiesta' [and] emphasizes the beauty of the animal". It is evident that Spaniards take pride in their culture and the plethora of history that it is made up of dating thousands of years, and the bull fight symbolizes the boldness, frivolity, pride in triumph, and altruism that makes up the Spanish culture itself. I knew that bullfighting was a major source of cultural pride for Spaniards, but I did not truly realize its importance to some until the former king of Spain himself, Juan Carlos I, arrived at the stadium to watch the match. If one of the most important living men in the country traveled to watch the fight, it must be an important experience and display of classic Spanish culture. Supporters of bull fights similarly value the killing of the bulls as a symbol of life. The killing of the animal portrays the fragility of life itself and that it can end in the blink of an eye. Moreover, the killing symbolizes heroism and triumph over evil or opposition forces, and Spaniards take great pride in victory and emotional strength in all facets of life.
The Spaniards who love bullfighting carry some of the same values as the Spaniards who take great pride in their soccer teams: cultural pride and celebration. Just like soccer, bullfighting is much more than a sport and is instead a unique social gathering in which friends, families, and strangers revere in the values of heroism, pride, and valor that they all stand for as a country. Fans are very passionate about both sports because the pride and happiness that they receive from these events are much more important than the outcome that is seen on paper. Although both spectacles can divide fans into supporters and opposition (or supporters of one team versus supporters of another), both sides can agree that the values that both historically stand for are the reasons why the Spanish culture is one of the most distinct and exciting cultures to experience and take part in and why Spain is one of the greatest countries in the world.
How Spaniards View Fútbol
5/22/17
To better understand the sporting culture in Spain, I interviewed three of my Spanish language professors and asked them what soccer in Spain means to them. This is what they said:
Carlos Gutierrez, born in Castile y León: "Soccer allegiances are born in childhood and, usually, stay with us for life. I follow Spanish (and European soccer) because it is part of my childhood and has stayed with me over the years and over the continents. Contrary to the US, teams are not franchises that can be moved to another city, for business purposes. That is close to unthinkable and, were it to happen, it would translate into serious public discontent. That said, many people follow teams from cities other than one's own. This is true especially with the two big teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona, that have a big national (and international) following. Spanish fans are passionate and argumentative but serious, violent hooliganism is rare these days."
Mar Gamez, born in Ibiza: "Soccer is more than a sport to me. It is part of my identity and a motive of pride and celebration. I remember celebrating Real Madrid trophies since I was little with my family and friends, and learning the names of all of the players as well as of the national team. Now that I have grown older, I do not follow the Spanish league so much, but I never miss a Real Madrid-Barcelona game or an important Champions League game. I also love following the World Cup. I wish it would happen every two years! I will never forget the day Spain won its first World Cup. It is one of those days that I will always remember. It was a motive of celebration, union, and pride for all Spaniards. I did not have a job then, as I had just moved back to Spain from the USA, and I asked God to help Spain win the World Cup more than to help me find a job. So this shows how much soccer means to me! Fortunately, Spain won the World Cup and I found a job pretty soon, so in the end everything worked out."
Andres Perez-Simon, born in Andalucía: "What’s fútbol for me? Well, I grow up in Spain in the eighties, and at that time kids didn’t have much entertainment at home (two television channels, that was pretty much it) and we would spend all the time playing soccer outdoors. Nothing fancy, just soccer in the streets (I grew up in a very small village in Southern Spain) until your mom called you to go home for dinner. The funny thing is that even though the fan base was huge, major teams like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona couldn’t win any international trophy (Barcelona started to pull big wins in the 1990s, then Real Madrid came back with the Séptima, after beating Juventus in the 1998 Champions League final) and the Spanish national team was known as the eternal underachiever. Things are very different now, of course, with the Spanish national team winning back-to-back-to-back international competitions (Euro Cup 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro Cup 2012) and FC Barcelona and Real Madrid monopolizing the Champions League, plus Sevilla winning the Europa League three years in a row, from 2013 to 2016. While you can’t separate soccer from politics in Spain, especially in the case of Catalonians separatists using FC Barcelona to spread their message, I think it’s worth remembering how bad Spanish teams were when facing international rivals in the 1980s and the early 1990s in order to understand that the excellence of Spanish soccer teams is in great part a consequence of the development and modernization of the country in the last three decades. Younger generations will take this for granted but I can assure you that it wasn’t this way when Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (Atlético de Madrid or Sevilla weren’t even in the big picture, how many people in Europe knew anything about them?) regularly lost to any team from Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and even Rumania – you can simply ask old FC Barcelona fans how they felt when FC Steaua Bucharest beat Barca in the 1986 final of the then-called European Cup, the precedent of today's Champions League."
If you look at each of these Spaniards' stories, you see a couple of similarities: family and identity. As they all explained, soccer is much more than a sport; instead, it was a major facet of their lives growing up that helped create their regional identity. Spaniards are devoutly loyal to their hometowns, and they often feel this loyalty because of their local/regional soccer team that their region/country is known for. As Carlos stated in his interview, soccer is not a sport of business in Spain as it often is in the United States. It would be unimaginable for even a third division soccer team to move to a different city on the basis of economic profit as major sports teams like the Los Angeles (formerly Saint Louis) Rams have done in the past. Spanish soccer is about undying pride for a fan's team regardless of record or recent success. Fans see soccer furthermore as a reason to celebrate and it carries support to the point that is has almost become a religion, demonstrated by how Mar explained that she prayed to God that Real Madrid would win before she prayed for a job. In my later blog posts, I will look more into the culture of Spanish soccer rivalries and how the overall sporting culture plays into regionalism and nationalism amongst its fans.
El Fútbol Español
5/17/17
In my Spanish class earlier this week, my teacher described soccer as "la corazon y el orgullo de cada persona de España" or "the heart and pride of every person in Spain", which is a spot-on explanation of the relationship that Spaniards have with soccer in their respective regions, towns, and cities. To them, soccer is more than just a sport; rather, it is a type of family that celebrates their local team's successes and mourn their failures as one. This is one reason why FC Barcelona's official slogan is "mes que un club" or "more than a club" in Catalán. Fans have a stubborn pride for their favorite teams that is unmatched in American cities, and rooting for a team in Spain means much more than watching their games and supporting their star players.
Spanish soccer has such a strong following in Spain because fans' loyalty to their region's squad is much stronger than that of America's. In America, it is relatively common to see people in Cincinnati who are fans of the Golden State Warriors, the New England Patriots, or the Chicago Cubs, for example, because they are successful teams or because they like the teams' favorite players, but in Spain this is very uncommon. Even when I visited the small city of Getafe, where the population is just under 127,000, I saw many teenagers, men, and women wearing apparel for Getafe FC, their local team that plays in the Second Division of the Spanish soccer league (they are not even in the top division like Real Madrid ad FC Barcelona yet they have a huge following). Loyalty is usually maintained within hometowns in Spain, while in the US it often defies city/state boundaries.
I believe that there are two underlying reasons as to why Spanish soccer fans often solely support their local team while Americans often root for teams outside of their city or state. First, Spaniards maintain their local roots when supporting a soccer team because they on average move many fewer times than the average American does in a lifetime. According to the statistical website FiveThirtyEight.com, the average American moves within the United States a little over 14 times during their life, while the average Spaniard moves approximately 4 times. Overall, Americans are much more mobile than Spaniards in terms of where they live because Americans often move multiple times for their jobs, while Spaniards do not switch or move for their jobs nearly as often. In turn, Spaniards feel a stronger sense of pride for their hometown regions because there is a much higher chance that they will have lived within the same region for their entire lives. Thus, fans feel as if their local team is a part of their "corazon" because they have lived and loved them for their entire lives and are less willing to change their fandom even if their team is performing poorly.
Secondly, I believe that Spaniards are more die-hard fans of their local soccer teams because watching soccer is a unique social gathering that connects friends, family, and neighbors. Fans take pride in supporting their local teams and celebrating their successes as a group, and when they see their own team win they feel a strong sense of pride in being a part of these achievements. Specifically, the Real Madrid official chant proclaims that fans on game-day "wear their jerseys attached to [our] hearts... the days that they play you are all that I am" and Atlético de Madrid's chant states how fans all "shutter with passion" when watching their favorite team play. I myself felt like a part of a special group when watching the Atlético de Madrid vs Real Madrid Champions League semifinal match on one of my first days here in Madrid. This is a very intense inter-regional rivalry in Spain, and when I watched the game at a local downtown bar I could feel the unmatched pride and joy that fans had for their hometown teams. Every bar downtown was packed with fans cheering and yelling chants for their respective teams. I wore an Alético de Madrid jersey to watch the game and I was astounded at how many people came up and talked to me saying "¡Viva Aleti!" or "¡Hala [hail] Real Madrid!" just because I was wearing the jersey. One Alético fan came up to me and talked to me for five minutes about why he loved the team and who his favorite players on the team are, and a Real Madrid fan talked to me about that he likes them because he was born minutes away from their stadium. I really felt like I created friendships with fans of both teams through our shared love of soccer in Madrid, which demonstrates the distinct social function of sports in the Spanish culture.
American soccer journalist, Paul Gardner, described it best when he explained: "To the athlete it is an art form, an athletic ballet. To the spiritually inclines it is a religion." Spaniards follow their regional team almost as if it is a religion, making the Spanish soccer culture arguably the greatest and strongest sporting culture in the world.
The Spanish Sporting Culture
5/9/2017
When describing what it was like to live in Spain, former Spice Girl and wife of David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, explained, "España huele a ajo." meaning it "smells like garlic". Whether she meant this in that the gastronomically unrivaled culture emanates of many flavorful dishes such as tortillas de patatas, jamón ibérico con queso, or any delicious seafood dish filled with vegetables like grilled garlic (or if she just meant that Spain smells bad), I believe that she is forgetting one truly awesome aspect of Spain: the smell of fútbol constantly filling the air. Spanish soccer encapsulates the country's culture by creating an unwavering allegiance to one's country and region through support of a region's local team. Team scarves and flags flutter in the air on apartment windows, Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezman jerseys paint the streets and subways of Madrid, and fans of all sorts amass at local bars all over the country to watch matches in camaraderie with other random strangers who fell a connection because of their shared fandom. Soccer creates the Spanish culture as we know it in so many ways, producing a country that is much more than garlic.
After my first few days in Madrid (as well as through my past visits to Madrid and Barcelona), I have found that fans proudly wear their team's colors regardless of wins or losses because their loyalty encompasses much more than the team itself. I have noticed that the culture of a soccer squad often matches that of the region as a whole, thus pitting regions against each other in terms of fandom and political and social aspects. This phenomenon is explained through Liz Crolley and David Hand's novel Football, Europe, and the Press. Crolley and Hand explain that during the Spanish Civil War, Dictator Francisco Franco sought to use soccer as a media vehicle to unite Spaniards into one Spanish identity under the strong Real Madrid team. With Madrid being the capital of the country, the successful team symbolized strength in centralism, while opposing teams on the outskirts of the country symbolized community devotion and the cultural strength of regional autonomy. Further, soccer stadiums were the only venue during Franco's rule in which citizens could publicly wave their own region's flags and sing in their own languages, and so supporting one's own local soccer team became an "escape valve for regionalist feelings" according to Crolley and Hand. Up until today, regions still carry feelings of competitive hatred towards rival regions through their soccer teams. I have noticed this in Madrid in that bars, citizens, and fans wear Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid jerseys throughout the streets and fly flags of Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid proudly outside their windows, but a citizen of Madrid will never be seen wearing an FC Barcelona or Valencia jersey in public. This was similar during my visit to Barcelona, in which FC Barcelona jerseys and flags could be seen throughout the streets without a Real Madrid jersey in sight. Many fans there also hung FC Barcelona flags up next to Catalonian flags outside their windows in tandem. Catalonia has long sought for independence from Spain in rebellion from the country's centralist mindset, and so FC Barcelona flags can also be seen as a symbol of freedom and independence that fans personify by supporting their hometown squad. Most all fans are only fans of their hometown teams and root for them as well as embody their team's values in their own lives. Fans seen wearing a team's jerseys in enemy territories are often tourists who are not accustomed to the soccer culture in Spain (I myself was sadly one of these tourists when I walked around Madrid for a day wearing an FC Bareclona jersey during my first visit two years ago). Soccer fandom is a way of life in Spain that captures the genuine culture that each region within the country represents. In this way, the Spanish sporting culture is unlike that of any other culture in the sports world. However, many individual aspects of the culture relate to those of the American football culture which I will delve more deeply into in my subsequent blog posts. Regardless, European author Anthony Burgess summed up Spanish soccer best by proclaiming: "Five days thou shalt labor, as the Bible says. The seventh day is the Lord thy God's. The sixth day is for football."
Correlation Between Soccer League Titles and Their Fans
05/04/17
I think the following graph is very interesting because it shows that there are more factors as to why Spaniards love their soccer teams besides their league titles. La Liga (the Spanish first division soccer league) is composed of 20 teams, but even when graphing just Real Madrid and FC Barcelona compared to the next eight most popular soccer teams in the world you can see that both teams (along with Liverpool) are above the trend line showing how many fans they theoretically should have based on their league titles won. That is, based on the graph's trend line FC Barcelona should have closer to 25 million fans worldwide based, yet they actually have closer to 58 million fans. There are many factors that could influence this, such as their global marketing strategy through clothing sales, endorsements, and social media, as well as recent worldwide success in competitions and tournaments (and that this is a small sample size), but it could also demonstrate the very high levels of devotion that Spaniards show towards their favorite clubs. A 2012 research study by the Association of Research for Media Companies (AIMC) explains that 23.8% of Spaniards polled are fans of Real Madrid while 18.2% are FC Barcelona fans. Spaniards carry an undying love for their hometown teams, which is why I believe that they fall above the trend line of this graph. There are many factors as to why Spaniards hold a unique love for their hometown and local soccer teams which I will go in to in the following blog posts.
Most Popular Soccer Teams in the World
05/03/17
This graph that I created via Tableau's software depicts some of the most popular soccer teams in the world. Their fanbases are depicted in millions based on research collected by BleacherReport.com (although these are very subjective numbers that can vary based on who was surveyed, which countries and continents were surveyed, etc.). The image demonstrates that Spain's Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are two of the most popular teams in the world and FC Barcelona is the most popular team in the world with over 57 million fans to date. Further, these two teams have some of the most league titles out of any soccer teams in the world, as demonstrated by the size of each team's respective circles. Real Madrid hold 33 league titles (tied with Juventus for most league titles for a single soccer team in the world) and FC Barcelona holds 24. It seems like there would be a strong positive relationship between league titles and resulting fanbases, and in my next post I will look into whether this holds true with all teams and if there are other underlying factors causing Spaniards to particularly love their soccer teams more than in other regions and counres worldwide.
Chronicling My Learning Experience
5/02/17
Legendary footballer, Pele, once explained that success and knowledge originates from the "love of what you are doing or learning to do", which perfectly summarizes why I am travelling to Spain and chronicling my journeys, experiences, and new understanding through the upcoming blog posts. I love sports as much as anyone in the world, I love to travel, and I love to learn more about my ancestral culture, and so I took advantage of the opportunity to study abroad in Spain for four weeks to immerse myself in its language, its way of life, and its renowned sporting culture. Ever since my dad introduced me to my first Bearcats basketball game on TV in first grade, sports have been my favorite thing to do, watch, talk about, analyze, write about, and think about on a daily basis. I have always been a huge basketball and football fan, and I am certain that I could recognize at least 75% of the players who currently play in the NBA or NFL (and who they play for) and name at least one fact about them if I were to hear their name/s in a conversation. I cannot remember the last day I have spent without talking about sports with my friends or watching and reading up on the latest sporting news. I have always been a huge basketball and (American) football fan, but I have never really been an avid European football/soccer fan, and I only began to take any interest in the sport at all a few years ago during the 2014 World Cup. In terms of the way the sport is played, watched, and talked about, it seemed like an entirely foreign language to me, but as I started to watch it more closely I became enamored by it and the culture behind it. Specifically, I became extremely interested in the Spanish soccer culture and how extremely attached Spaniards are to their respective squads. Soccer plays an integral part in Spaniards' daily lives, and I wonder why this is so. During my trip, I hope to learn as much about Spanish soccer as I can through experiences (I will be attending a Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid soccer game during my visit), research, and through talking with locals to better understand what makes the Spanish soccer culture (and sporting culture as a whole) so unique.
Throughout this blog, I will be delving into the Spanish sporting culture and how it so intricately connects with Spain's history, political system, geography, and culture as a whole by means of historical and cultural research, graphs and charts analyzing relationships between sports and Spain statistically (since I am a Business Analytics major), interviews, and photos and videos that depict my journeys. I am very excited to embark and to learn more about what I love, just as Pele advised.
