Soccer as a Pagan Religion
Chapters 1 through 4 highlighted the political lessons of soccer. This chapter is about soccer as a pagan religion in an age when increasingly “God is dead,” to paraphrase the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900).[1] In his The Gay Science published in 1882, Nietzsche further declared the following as a consequence of the death of God: “Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”[2] This lesson might be surprising for some people and this chapter is not intended to be an attack on established religions. Rather, our aim in lesson five is to demonstrate that soccer takes on all the trappings of a pagan religion and that our gods are increasingly soccer stars.
Soccer is a “secular religion,” to use the expression of Mexican writer Juan Villoro from his classic Dios es redondo (God is round).[3] The Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini opined that soccer is “the last sacred ritual of our time.”[4] Jock Wallace, the former Scottish soccer player and manager of the Glasgow-based Rangers, affirmed that “Soccer is my religion.”[5] The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano prayed for attractive soccer, irrespective of the club or nation: “A pretty move for the love of God. And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”[6]
In Africa, soccer is so “sacred” that witch doctors are used by clubs and nations in order to put spells on rival teams and thus assist their own team. As one journalist explains, “Just as every German team has a physiotherapist, every African team has a resident witch doctor. And the spells work, say some.”[7] At the 2002 African Cup of Nations, Cameroon trainer Winnie Schäfer was left without his co-trainer Thomas N’Kono because, just prior to the semi-final, “he had been seen burying bones under the turf and spraying a strange elixir, in order to cast a spell on the playing field.”[8] N’Kono, a legendary African goalkeeper, was arrested and led away in handcuffs and ended up spending the night in police custody.
Soccer fans can be Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, or Wiccans. The retired English player Linvoy Primus (b. 1973), who spent most of his career with Portsmouth, was openly Christian and was part of a prayer group of soccer players that included former Nigerian international Kanu, the retired English player Sean Davis, and the Zimbabwean striker Benjani.[9] A soccer stadium in Santiago, Chile is named Juan Pablo Segundo (Pope John Paul II). Numerous Latin American soccer players cross themselves, or fall to the ground in prayer before the start of matches, including the Manchester United star and Mexican international Javier “Chicharito” (Little Pea) Hernández.
In this chapter, I advance the argument that, irrespective of a person’s faith or lack of faith, modern soccer is akin to a secular or pagan religion. Professional soccer matches in Israel usually take place on Saturday, the Jewish rest day. Sunday is a church day for many Christians around the world, but also the day when there are lots of soccer fixtures in England, Italy, and Mexico. When soccer fans enter soccer stadiums, which one might view as modern “cathedrals” or shrines, they are transformed by experiences that are mystical, mythical, or even religious. Soccer stadiums and their rituals (including songs, scarves, hats, and banners) are like “sacred sites” in the eyes of many fans, players, and coaches. These “sacred sites,” as Desmond Morris points out in his The Soccer Tribe, are really “temples” that fulfill key human functions such as the need for belonging and the power of the group.[10] When he introduced Gareth Bale at Real Madrid’s world record signing in September 2013 to 20,000 screaming fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, the club president Florentino Perez stated “we are in the temple of Real Madrid.”[11] In short, clubs, national teams, soccer stadiums, and players are venerated in a quasi-religious fashion. Famous Mexican side Club Deportivo Guadalajara, more popularly known as “Chivas,” is nicknamed Rebaño Sagrado (Sacred Flock).
Modern soccer stars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Iniesta, Xavi, Edinson Cavani, or Radamel Falcao are the gods of our times. These soccer stars have followed Nietzsche’s aphorism to “become gods” and thus appear “worthy of it.” Legendary retired soccer stars such as Pelé, Maradona, Beckenbauer, Zidane, Puskás, Cruyff, Yashin, Best, Moore, Di Stéfano, Gento, Rahn, Fontaine, Hugo Sánchez, Platini, Sócrates, Boniek, Lato, Weah, Milla, and Cha Bum-Kun were seen by many soccer fans as blessed by god-like powers. Soccer fans saw these star players as miracle workers on the pitch. In Brazil, Pelé was seen as a safo, a player with divine inspiration who was quick and clever and could do “forbidden things” on the pitch. The Brazilian striker Romario, the winner of the Golden Ball award and World Cup title in 1994, did not always have kind words for Pelé but recognized his transcendental significance: “I was never one for idols. That said, I’m a good Brazilian and so it’s only inevitable I look up to Pelé. He’s like a God to us—well, he is to me anyway.”[12]
Or, as Vladimir Dimitrijević opines, a great soccer star is akin to the Spanish literary hero Don Quixote, or a brilliant novelist or poet, in that he has one dominant idea in his head.[13] This dominant idea, he points out, is “grandiose” and “divine.” The idea is based on winning, but also winning with a breathtaking style that pleases the fans and soccer gods. It is the opposite of a “politically correct” soccer linked solely to results and the “fear of not winning.”[14] In chapter 11, I further explore the relationships between soccer, art, and literature. For now, I point out that the greatest contemporary and retired soccer stars provide fans with divine experiences in soccer “temples” or “cathedrals” (stadiums).
For those of you that are soccer fans, you must have been moved by divine soccer experiences. Watching players like the retired Moroccan international Mohammed Timoumi (1986 World Cup and 1985 African Player of the Year), the Nigerian midfield general Jay-Jay Okocha (1994 World Cup), the elegance of Brazilian midfield masters like Sócrates or Falcao, the scintillating dribbling skills of Johan Cruyff or George Best, or the lethal, curling free kicks of Michel Platini, it was as if these soccer stars were touched by a divine spark! The delicate technical skills that these players possessed were not merely due to hard work, discipline, or training. It did not matter whether these players were religious or radical atheists. Soccer was for them and their legions of fans akin to a religious experience.
We must now select our number 5 player. Typically, the number 5 is a sweeper. The sweeper is the final line of defense before the goalkeeper. He is an organizer, sure in defense, and a steady influence on the team. Moreover, the sweeper is the player who can orchestrate the rhythm of a game, stop star forwards with key tackles, and even make decisive passes through his distribution abilities. There has been an array of talented sweepers in soccer history.
Some recently retired sweepers that were seen as gods by their fans include the Egyptian international sweeper Hany Ramzy, the South Korean sweeper Hong Myung-Bo (the first Asian player to play in four consecutive World Cup final tournaments from 1990 until 2002), the rock at the heart of the World Cup-winning French side in the 1998 World Cup Laurent Blanc (1989–2000), or the Argentinean international Roberto Ayala (1994–2007). Recall that Elias Figueroa, the representative of chapter 2, was also an accomplished sweeper with the Chilean national team. Sweepers’ command of the game turns them into leaders and heroic figures, which pleases the gods and their legions of awe-inspired fans.
Current sweepers of note include Brazil’s powerful Lúcio, the elegant English international Rio Ferdinand, the Portuguese internationals Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho, Belgium’s Vincent Kompany, and Brazil’s Thiago Silva. The newer generation is generally tougher and more hardened in its style of play compared to the older generation. In the age of win-at-all-costs and commercial soccer, it is results that really matter. Thus, the newer generation of sweepers is more jackboot than technical artistry. Of course the game of soccer has changed and those modern soccer players are excellent athletes.
Soccer is akin to a secular faith, and Franz Beckenbauer and Zinedine Zidane have been selected as soccer gods that both wore the number 5. Beckenbauer and Zidane could defend and attack with equal ability. Beckenbauer and Zidane were the conductors of the West German and French national teams and their respective club sides for many years. Zidane could score unexpectedly with his head, like in the 1998 World Cup, or with a howling rocket from distance that left the goalkeeper dazed. Or, like Beckenbauer, Zidane could make an incisive pass that could cut even the most expert of defenses and make them look wanting and amateurish. Both Beckenbauer and Zidane were like great poets; their movements were as elegant as a dancer, they loved their craft like a gifted artisan, and both understood that soccer is a game in which the struggle is with oneself more than against your opponents.[15] In chapter 11, I further discuss the relationship between soccer and the arts.
Among all sweepers in soccer history, one sweeper stands out. If one thinks of soccer as a religion, or soccer as a divine experience, I must pick Franz Beckenbauer over any living sweeper as one of the representatives for lesson five. Beckenbauer was a soccer god: one of the greatest soccer players of all time. Or, as Christoph Biermann of The Observer put it: “In a secular Germany, Beckenbauer embodies not only the royal idea (his nickname is ‘The Kaiser’) but also that of an overlord. He is the god of German football.”[16]
Our second choice for the number 5 jersey is the recently retired French international Zinedine Zidane. He wore the number 5 jersey while playing for Real Madrid. Although he was a midfielder, Zinedine Zidane could have played any position on the pitch and would have also been an accomplished sweeper. Zidane was also a soccer god. BBC called the French superstar “Le football God.”[17] The BBC could back up its claim: “What Zinedine Zidane lacks in hair, he makes up for in skill and vision. Bags of it. A silky turn, a cunning feint, a dazzling dribble or a stunning volley. And he never lets anybody down on the biggest of stages. In the 1998 World Cup final, his two headed goals saw off the might of Brazil.”
What Beckenbauer and Zidane had in common was complete dominance on the pitch, technical artistry, and vision. In 2013, World Soccer picked its eleven best players of all time in a worldwide poll.[18] Both Beckenbauer and Zidane made the team, as did Paolo Maldini, one of the representatives of chapter 3.
Franz Beckenbauer is a retired West German international and a world soccer legend. Franz Anton Beckenbauer was born on September 11, 1945, in Munich, Germany. From 1964 until 1977, he appeared 427 times and scored sixty goals for Bayern Munich. Beckenbauer was such a gifted player that he earned the nickname Der Kaiser (The Emperor) because of his elegant style, complete dominance on the pitch, exceptional leadership skills, and his first name “Franz” (akin to the Austrian emperors). He is perhaps the greatest German soccer star of all time, as well as one of the legends of world soccer. It was at the 1966 World Cup when Beckenbauer arguably revolutionized the game with his trademark galloping runs from the back, as well as his free-flowing libero role that allowed him to roam the entire field.
Beckenbauer’s honors were vast and he requires an entire museum to house his trophies! He was twice selected the European Footballer of the Year (1972 and 1976), appeared 103 times for West Germany, and played in three World Cups: 1966, 1970, and 1974. Marking and stopping the legendary Johan Cruyff in the 1974 World Cup final was a major highlight of his career. Cruyff was also selected by World Soccer as one of the top eleven players of all time. Beckenbauer’s defensive exploits and his command of the game stopped Dutch “total soccer” and handed Germany a 2–1 win in the finals of the 1974 World Cup. Beckenbauer was the captain of West Germany’s World Cup-winning squad in 1974.
At the club level with Bayern Munich, more success came for Beckenbauer. He won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1967 and three consecutive European Cup titles from 1974 to 1976. The latter accomplishment made Beckenbauer the only player to win three European Cup titles as the captain of his club.
In 1977, Beckenbauer accepted a rather lucrative contract to play in the North American Soccer League with the New York Cosmos. He played with the Cosmos for four seasons until 1980. The team won the North American championship known as the “Soccer Bowl” three times in 1977, 1978, and 1980.
It is interesting that Beckenbauer was not only a deity as a player, but as a coach. Along with Brazil’s Mário Zagallo, Beckenbauer is the only man to have won the World Cup both as a player and coach. In 1990, West Germany won the World Cup, beating Argentina 1–0 in the final in what was one of the dullest World Cup finals in recent memory. Beckenbauer was the coach of the German-winning team. From 1984 to 1990, Beckenbauer managed West Germany. In 1993, 1994, and again in 1996, Beckenbauer managed Bayern Munich. As both a player and coach Beckenbauer was dubbed a god: “Franz is a god, and Jürgen a mere mortal,”[19] opined the BBC in pitting the combined playing and managerial skills of Beckenbauer and Jürgen Klinsmann, a former West German World Cup winner in 1990 and the coach of the USA national soccer team.
In terms of world soccer history, Der Kaiser is in the category of world legends. In 1999, he was voted second, behind Johan Cruyff, as the European Player of the Century. The IFFHS voted him third behind Pelé and Cruyff in the World Player of the Century category. To add to his accomplishments, the IFFHS voted Beckenbauer the Universal Genius of World Soccer in 2007 because he was the world’s top player, its top coach, and its top administrative official. The IFFHS website highlights the prerequisites for this prestigious award:
During his active career, a footballer must have demonstrated total world class both at club level and in the national team, shown creativity on the pitch and been successful by any standard.
He must also have been successful at the highest international level as the coach of a club and/or national team and shown similar creativity and brilliance there.
Finally, he must also have been successful at the highest international level as an official and contributed ground-breaking ideas to world football.[20]
Zidane gave soccer fans a mesmerizing and pleasurable experience because of his extraordinary technical skills. Zidane was the greatest player of his generation in the 1990s and early part of the new millennium, until his retirement from international soccer after a heartbreaking loss to Italy in the finals of the 2006 World Cup. Zidane was also, for millions of French men and women, Berbers, and Algerians (his ethnic origins), Africans, and others around the world, like a god on the pitch. He not only won trophies, but also played beautiful soccer. Zidane’s talented teammate Thierry Henry told French newspaper Le Parisien that Zidane was a god after he announced his return to international soccer in 2005 following his retirement: “What I am about to say is strong, but it’s the truth. In France, everybody realized that God exists, and that he is back in the French international team. God is back, there is little left to say.”[21]
He will always be known as “Zizou,” the affectionate nickname for Zinedine Yazid Zidane. He was born on June 23, 1972, in the southern French city of Marseille. Zidane’s parents immigrated to Paris from the Berber-speaking region of Kabylie in northern Algeria in 1953. The family found little work in Paris and by the mid-1960s they moved to Marseille. Zidane grew up as the youngest of five children. His family, like other soccer legends, came from a humble background. His father worked at a department store, while his mother was a housewife. The neighborhood Zidane grew up in was noted throughout Marseille for its high crime and unemployment rates. It was in the tough La Castellane section of Marseille in a housing complex that Zidane first learned his silky smooth soccer skills.
It is out of such suburbs as those in which Zidane lived, with high concentrations of immigrant communities, that discontent at French authorities and the police led to one month of riots in 2005. Many of those rioting were, like Zidane, French youths of North African origins. The riots began in Clichy-sous-Bois and included Paris and other major cities in France. Poor housing projects throughout France saw lots of rioting. Public buildings, sports facilities, schools, and cars were burned. The situation was so grave that a state of emergency was declared on November 8, 2005, and the French Parliament later extended the emergency measures for three additional months.
Zidane began his career with modest French side Cannes in 1988 and ended it with Real Madrid in 2006, scoring thirty-seven times in 155 matches for the Spanish club. It was his performances at Bordeaux from 1992 to 1996, where he scored twenty-eight goals in 139 matches, which earned Zidane interest from the major European clubs. Zidane led Bordeaux to a runner-up finish at the 1995–1996 UEFA Cup finals. If Zidane’s performances were almost always exceptional and divinely inspired for France, at the club level Zidane won La Liga and the UEFA Champions League titles for Real Madrid, two Serie A league championships for Juventus, and an Intercontinental Cup and a UEFA Super Cup for both Real Madrid and Juventus. In recognition of his superstar status, Zidane was voted FIFA World Player of the Year three times in 1998, 2000, and 2003.
Zidane played as an attacking midfielder, and was the key figure for a generation of talented French players, including Henry, Pires, Trezeguet, Deschamps, Blanc, Lizarazu, Desailly, Petit, and others that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Nations’ Championship. Zidane single-handedly helped France win its first ever World Cup in 1998 after a decisive 3–0 triumph in the finals against Brazil, the favorite. He scored two goals in the finals.
Watching the French international play at the height of his majesty when France won its first ever World Cup in 1998 was like being transported into the realm of the soccer gods. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest soccer players of all time. Zidane was so technically complete that watching him was like a quasi-religious experience. An Algerian I used to run into habitually in downtown Toronto, also a “Zizou” fan, would often say to me in reference to Zidane’s divine skills: “There is only one ‘Zizou.’ There is no other like him. There is only one ‘Zizou’—like there is only one god.”
When he played for Real Madrid from 2001 until 2006, the retired French international Zinedine Zidane also wore the number 5 jersey. Zidane chose the number 5 shirt because Raúl, a club idol, was wearing the number 10 jersey. While Zidane was typically a playmaking midfielder who traditionally wears the number 10 shirt, he was sometimes capable of coming back into very deep positions akin to a sweeper (the traditional number 5) and beginning a dangerous move that might end in a goal. Zidane transformed the French team from a very good squad into a great team, but with France he wore the number 10 jersey.
At the 2002 World Cup, Zidane was injured and far from his best. Yet when he returned for his curtain call at the 2006 World Cup he was awesome, a divine force, and a magical performer. For his performances at the 2006 World Cup, Zidane won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s most outstanding player. He will unfortunately always be remembered for the infamous head-butting of Italian defender Marco Materazzi. The head-butt led to Zidane’s red card dismissal, but he almost won the World Cup for France shortly before his sending off a thumping header, which was miraculously saved by the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. Italy won the World Cup in a penalty shootout, denying the French legend and France a second World Cup win. Zidane ended his international career with thirty-one goals in 108 matches for France. Laurent Dubois points out that while Zidane’s gesture elicited many different responses, regret about the incident prevailed among many French observers, including President Chirac.[22] They refused to pronounce judgment on Zidane, insisting on the nation’s admiration for the superstar and respect for Zidane as a brilliant French player.
When Zinedine Zidane retired in 2006, he left us all with a soccer hole. A “Zizou” is like a gift from God. He comes around once every twenty, thirty, fifty, or one hundred years. There are good soccer players or excellent soccer stars, but the divine players are the very few that we can count on the fingers of our two hands.
Today Zidane’s situation is a far cry from his childhood in the tough and poor La Castellane section of Marseille. He is Real Madrid’s director of football. He also has aspirations to be a coach. Yet he will always be remembered for his exceptional gifts on the pitch. When Zidane retired in 2006, the tributes paid to the French superstar were stunning and extended well beyond the soccer world. He visited the Algerian birthplace of his parents, and had an official meeting with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Other soccer legends have also sung Zidane’s praises. Franz Beckenbauer, the other representative of lesson five, called Zidane “one of the greatest players in history” and David Beckham went further when he dubbed him “the greatest of all time.”[23] Pelé called Zidane “a magician.”[24] Italy’s former manager Marcello Lippi, who coached Zidane when he played for Juventus, said: “I think Zidane is the greatest talent we’ve known in football these last 20 years, yet he never played the prima donna. I am honored to have been his manager.”[25] Cesare Maldini, the former manager of the Italian national team, wished Zidane was on his side: “I would give up five players to have Zizou in my squad.”[26]
Off the pitch, Zidane was also a great soccer ambassador: he was a FIFA representative in a Match Against Poverty in Spain in 2008; he played soccer for children with AIDS in Malaysia in 2007; acted as a UN goodwill ambassador since 2001; and is the official representative of Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup. Thus, Zidane has a social conscience like a number of players I discussed in chapter 4.
It is true that Zidane is also a rich man, with official endorsements from many big companies such as Adidas, Lego, France Telecom, Audi, and Christian Dior, to name a few. These sponsorship deals earned Zidane a hefty 8.6€ million ($11.6 million USD) in addition to his 61.4€ million ($83.2 million USD) salary with Real Madrid in his final season, making him the sixth-highest paid soccer player.[27] Yet the man that came from a humble background from the tough streets of Marseille will always be remembered neither for his fortune, nor his fame. Not even for his head-butting of Marco Materazzi. Zidane will be remembered for his divine soccer talents on the pitch.
Zinedine Zidane was the closest we have witnessed to a soccer deity since the days of Beckenbauer, Cruyff, and Pelé. At the end of his career, the legendary Pelé called him a master without equal in his generation.[28] After his stunning performance against Brazil in the 2006 World Cup, a writer for The Independent made this comment about Zidane: “There was something almost beatific in his performance. From the moment he walked slowly on to the pitch, with his eyes raised heavenwards, to when he finally departed, the first French player to leave following the final whistle, he was serene.”[29]
Zidane’s North African roots (that is, Berber and Algerian) were conspicuous in soccer circles and beyond after France won the 1998 World Cup. As pointed out in chapter 1, anti-immigrant and ultra-nationalist politicians within the Front National and the French public now had an image of a successful French national soccer team captain of North African origins. In addition, Zidane was a secular Muslim. He was neither a criminal, nor a jihadist sympathizer. He did not abuse the welfare system, a charge from the extreme right aimed at many North African immigrants in France and throughout Europe. Zidane was the model of a well-integrated Frenchman of North African origin.
Other soccer stars recognized Zidane’s unique soccer skills and could even compare him to a god. Kevin Keegan, the retired English international, insisted that Zidane was better than two other soccer gods and compared him to the leader of an orchestra: “You look at Zidane and think ‘I’ve never seen a player quite like that.’ Diego Maradona was a great player. Johan Cruyff was a great player. They were different—but with similarities. What sets Zidane apart is the way he manipulates a football, buying himself space that isn’t there. Add his vision and it makes him very special.”[30] I pointed out that Thierry Henry, a former teammate of Zidane’s with the French national team, paid Zidane the best tribute when he called him a soccer “god.”[31]
Soccer is, like politics, a new religion of our age. Emilio Gentile, the Italian political historian, sees the twentieth century as the age of “politics as religion.”[32] As traditional religions waned in a more secular age, the chosen race or class (the proletariat), the political party, the omniscient leader, the nation, state, or secular ideologies became our objects of worship. Fascism, Nazism, Maoism, and even liberalism are akin to forms of secular religious worship, complete with sacred commandments and scriptures, revered holidays, and anointed texts and leaders. Gentile insists that both co-optation and mimicry of traditional religion exists in the age of modern secular politics. Try as we may to banish the gods from the political sphere, they reappear as secular gods with new names, sacred commandments, and divine-like rituals.
In the case of both modern politics and soccer, we are not aware of the religious-like dimensions of the activities involved. In the modern epoch, it is not merely a question of what belongs to God belongs to the Church and what belongs to Caesar belongs to the state. With modern soccer, Caesar and God are united in the experiences of millions in soccer stadiums. Stadiums are our pagan temples and soccer heroes are our gods. Soccer players and fans obey sacred commandments by always following their respective teams, irrespective of the results. Both players and fans engage in superstitious rituals such as songs in order to invoke the gods to side with their team. Alan G. Ingham makes this point in a manner that does not negate the expanding commercial imperatives of soccer (chapter 7):
Yes, winning and losing are important in the emotional experiences, but what is far more important is that, regardless of whether our team is winning or losing, the faithful seem compelled by an abstract force, larger than themselves, to go and worship at the shrine. We buy symbols of our devotion even though we know symbols such as “away” shirts are changed frequently as a money-making ploy (the English Premier League). We listen to the “liturgies” and sing the “hymns.” We buy souvenirs to keep the sacred alive after our pilgrimages.[33]
Soccer temples or shrines are not new in the history of humanity. Soccer and games more broadly have long been for humanity akin to religions, substitute religions, or a reflection of the struggle of the gods. Soccer, like all sports, is a medium of communication, or extension and amplification of our psychic and social selves, as Canadian communications giant Marshall McLuhan argued.[34] McLuhan rightly pointed out that in the ancient world sporting contests and games were models of our inner psychological lives, forms of collective popular art, and live and dramatic microcosms of both the universe and the cosmic realm.[35] In antiquity, opined McLuhan, sporting contests were seen as a preparation for war and required stoic discipline in order to combat external foes and the “enemies” within.[36] In line with the notion of soccer as a pagan religion, in pre-modern and non-literate societies, the spectators’ role was unambiguously religious or spiritual. The sporting contest was viewed as a direct replica of the struggle of the gods and the wider cosmic drama.[37]
Modern soccer stadiums are the temples of our times, heightening what the Indians call darshan awareness, the mystical experience created by the physical congregation of vast numbers of people.[38] The Mexican writer Juan Villoro colorfully pointed out that a soccer match “without people is like a baptism without a child.”[39]
If modern soccer stadiums are our contemporary temples or shrines, the largest soccer stadiums in the world heighten the mystical experience created by the physical congregation of vast numbers of people. Both Zidane and Beckenbauer played in soccer temples such as Santiago Bernabéu and Munich’s Olympic Stadium, Bayern Munich’s stadium for thirty-three years. It will surprise many to know that Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, is the largest soccer stadium in the world with a capacity for 150,000 spectators. Opened in 1989, “the primary purpose of the stadium is to host vast parades and other public spectacles in North Korea.”[40] However, the stadium has also been used to host some of the North Korean national soccer team’s matches. As the stadium is located in Communist, totalitarian, and isolated North Korea, “it is extremely unlikely that this magnificent arena will ever play host to a major tournament or have its turf graced by some of the world’s best players.”[41]
Estadio Azteca in Mexico City is the world’s third largest stadium with a capacity for 105,000 fans. In terms of a stadium rich in soccer history, there is nothing to compare with the Azteca, except perhaps Brazil’s Maracanã. Azteca is the home of the Mexican national team and hosted two World Cups, in 1970 and 1986. Those two World Cup finals included the two greatest soccer gods the game has ever seen: Pelé and Maradona. The 1970 World Cup-winning Brazilian team, which defeated Italy 4–1 in the finals, is arguably the greatest team of all time. This Brazilian side included the soccer legends Pelé, Clodoaldo, Carlos Alberto, and Jairzinho. The open, attractive, attacking, fluid, and flowing soccer that this Brazilian side played has never been matched by any team in the world.
The Azteca was also the setting for Argentina’s entertaining 3–2 triumph against West Germany in the 1986 World Cup finals. During the quarterfinal match between England and Argentina, the Azteca was the site of two of the most memorable goals in soccer history: Maradona’s “hand of God” goal and a solo effort that saw Maradona weave through seven English players, and seal his place in soccer greatness by sliding the ball past the English goalkeeper. Although the gifted Jorge Burruchaga scored the winning goal, it is Maradona that will be immortalized for what is perhaps the greatest goal in soccer history.
Located in Rio de Janeiro, the Maracanã (officially Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho) is a soccer pantheon. In his book entitled Passion of the People?: Football in South America, Tony Mason writes that the Maracanã is “a place of pilgrimage.”[42] Frommer’s called it “the temple of Brazilian soccer.”[43] Writing for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Connie Watson called the Maracanã “soccer’s shrine” and “the temple of soccer.”[44] The recently refurbished Maracanã was described by The Guardian as the “new temple to [the] national religion.”[45] Built for the 1950 World Cup, the Maracanã became a place of tears after Brazil lost the World Cup final to Uruguay 2–1. Moacyr Barbosa, the Brazilian goalkeeper who was the scapegoat in the 1950 World Cup, tragically died, penniless, of a heart attack in 2000. Although he was one of the world’s best goalkeepers in a career that spanned twenty-two years, he was forever haunted by the ghosts of Maracanã and Alcides Ghiggia’s “soft” game-winning goal. More than 199,000 spectators watched the final. Scores of Brazilians committed suicide after the loss. According to one Argentinean writer, crucial national soccer team losses might drive some fans to “question god,” toward agnosticism, or even toward the “death of the divine.”[46]
Famous Brazilian club sides Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo, and Vasco da Gama have all used the Maracanã as their home at various points in their history. The Maracanã is today undergoing major refurbishing and it will host both the World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Brazil will seek to overcome the “curse” of the Maracanã in 2014 and 2016: the national tragedy of losing the 1950 World Cup final against tiny Uruguay.
Modern soccer shrines today compete with clubs run along a business model, as well as large corporations that sponsor and sell the game. I return to this theme in chapter 7 when I examine the relationships between soccer, business, and marketing. Corporations and even some clubs see very little in the stadiums except business opportunities. Club, country, or nation matter little for them, except the ability to sell themselves to the highest bidder. It is not unknown these days for players to play for five or six clubs. Yet despite the fact that soccer today is a transnational business opportunity, it still produces a soccer god like Zidane, worshipped by legions of fans. As one Zidane worshipper from Australia commented on a movie about the French star: “The guys who made this movie got it so wrong. They actually show Zidane as a tired static player and not the football god he is.”[47]
Gustave Le Bon, in his classic The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, could see in soccer matches and all crowds the “intensification of the emotions” and “the inhibition of the intellect.”[48] In soccer crowds, we substitute the unconscious actions of the crowd for the conscious activity of individuals. We are led by the “higher calling” of the team. As the crowd is ephemeral and “the intensification of the emotions” is tied to the team, once the match ends it might be difficult to engage in forms of solidarity outside the soccer temples with the same people that you see at the game. This might help to explain why various groups in civil society have sought to use the intense emotions and “thirst for obedience” inherent in soccer crowds to win supporters for their cause (as highlighted in chapter 1 with respect to nationalism, in chapter 3 in relation to the struggle for ideological hegemony, and in chapter 4 when I examined initiatives for social change).
According to Marshall McLuhan, like traditional religions, sporting contests such as soccer provide a frame of meaning: a mimetic re-creation of life’s uncertainty and the mechanistic rigor of life in the early twenty-first century (that is, the mystery of the game’s outcome determined by the soccer gods versus the rational, mechanistic rules of the game); the magical and mystical entrance into new realities; the breaking of the boundaries between the serious (for example, winning for one’s country) and the frivolous (that is, it is after all just a game); the temporary release from the grinding realities of work and the material pressures of life; an implicit questioning of the concept of work (are professional soccer players working or playing?) and the boundaries between leisure time and work; and the derisive laughter and play element directed at the serious person, intellectual, or society.[49] For the Mexican writer Eloy Caloca Lafont, leisure activities such as sports are an integral part of the history of humanity: we play, distract ourselves, create magic rituals, and seek a space for social catharsis.[50]
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that sacred spaces can be found outside the traditional religious realm. Thus, it was no accident that John Bale, in his Sport, Space and the City, insisted that stadiums generate “love of place” and “some stadia have become what amounts to sacred spaces, worthy, perhaps, of future protection and preservation like other revered monuments.”[51]
The congregation of large numbers of people at soccer stadiums, as well as the ritualistic choreography of opposing fans (including songs, banners, and colorful hats and scarves) is for some fans, players, and managers like a religious or mystical experience. As Christian Derbaix (Catholic University of Mons), Alain Decrop (University of Namur), and Olivier Cabossart (Catholic University of Mons) wrote in 2002, “Football fans express their identification with their team as a unified community during sacred sport moments.”[52] They interviewed Belgian soccer fans from various clubs and insist that scarves and hats fulfill four symbolic functions: identification, integration, expression, and sacralization.[53] They conclude with the “ideas of players as heroes, stadiums as temples and artifacts [shirts or gloves given by the players to fans] as sacred relics.”[54]
Christopher Gaffney (University of Texas) and Gilmar Mascarenhasa (University of the State of Rio de Janeiro) describe the stadium as an otherworldly realm: “Mecca of profane chants, upon entering into this space the individual lives in a time-world different than that on the outside.”[55] Before a Champions League soccer match in Napoli in 2013, Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp said the following: “Playing at the San Paolo will be a mystical experience for me, because it was the stadium that was home to Diego Armando Maradona. ‘We will try to make ourselves be influenced positively by this ‘presence.’”[56] One soccer fan could highlight his experiences at Barcelona’s Camp Nou in ecstatic or religious terms: “I’ve died and gone to heaven.”[57] The former West German national team goalkeeper and Turkish club Fenerbahçe captain Toni Schumacher, in his first season with the team in 1988, paid the ultimate tribute to the fans in Turkish soccer stadiums: “To experience a match in a Turkish stadium with these supporters is the ultimate for any football fan. Football is like a religion there.”[58]
Soccer chants also add to the aura of the stadium as a sacred experience. Win, lose, or draw, die-hard soccer fans stick with their teams and sing their songs throughout the match. Some of those songs, such as “We’ll Never Die,” sung by Manchester United fans, see the team as an eternal faith linking past, present, and future generations:
United’s flag is deepest red
It shrouded all our Munich dead
Before their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their heart’s blood dyed its ev’ry fold
Then raise United’s banner high
Beneath its shade we’ll live and die
So keep the faith and never fear
We’ll keep the Red Flag flying here
We’ll never die, we’ll never die
We’ll never die, we’ll never die
We’ll keep the Red flag flying high
’Cos Man United will never die.[59]
In conclusion, Beckenbauer and Zidane are divine soccer stars. The soccer temples and their fans now worship new heroes from Messi to Neymar. To millions of soccer fans around the world, it was obvious that Beckenbauer and Zidane loved to play soccer. For Zidane, there was still the little boy in him from the harsh streets of Marseille who loved to play all day, until his mother called him in for dinner. There was still the trickster in him; tricks that one can only learn through the madness and spontaneity of street soccer. Moreover, there was a soccer gift within him, as if providence had sent him to give millions of soccer fans pure joy. Zidane was a soccer god, yet possessed a humble personality. He could say to Marca in an interview in 2003 that he was a mere mortal and not a god.[60] Yet the fact that he made the comment confirms that his fans, journalists, coaches, and peers could see in him a “divine spark.” He was the greatest soccer player of his generation, but he was the immaculate team player. Aware that the soccer gods are watching, Zidane was never cocky on or off the field. He remembered his immigrant roots, which made sure that he cultivated his God-given talents with hard work.
Zidane’s kids are currently all enrolled in the Real Madrid soccer academy. This is no assurance that Zidane’s children will be soccer gods. It is true that there are soccer families in which the sons follow in the famous footsteps of the father: Maldini, Ayew, and Hernández. Yet soccer gods like Zidane or Beckenbauer cannot be easily produced. Soccer gods are molded through the help of providence. Countless soccer players may have practiced for more hours than Zidane or Beckenbauer yet never reach the technical mastery, control, shooting skills, passing vision, and tender touch of Zidane or Beckenbauer. Good genes, discipline, intelligence, and hard work can all pay off, but a Zidane or a Beckenbauer are like a single star in the galaxy—they are one (or two) of billions.
The soccer temples where we view our soccer gods are increasingly tainted by violence, hooliganism, crass commercialism, and an unethical win-at-all-costs philosophy. Despite these negative tendencies, soccer is for most of its fans, players, and even owners more than a mere business, as many professional clubs are in debt. Soccer fans are known for their “love” of the game and “the shirt” (club or nation), which verges on the sacred.[61] As Nietzsche pointed out in the late nineteenth century, we murdered god and thus we must become gods. Soccer stars are our gods. Amazingly, we still produce soccer gods: Iniesta, Xavi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Ibrahimović, and Messi, to name a few. Spain won the 2010 World Cup and the European Nations’ Championship in 2008 and 2012 with a squad that brought back the beauty of soccer: short passes in triangles, quick give and gos, control and mastery in midfield, working the ball out from the back, and a lethality in front of the goal. As human beings, we crave the festival, the carnival, and the party that is soccer. A soccer that is based on skill and guile more than strength; attacking, free-flowing, spontaneous, and unpredictable soccer; a soccer that would make the soccer gods proud. Beckenbauer and Zidane were the supreme practitioners of this divine style of soccer.
See, for example, section 108 in Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1974).
Ibid., section 125.
Juan Villoro, Dios es redondo (México, D.F.: Editorial Planeta, 2006).
Quoted in Thomas Pitts, “A Philosopher’s Guide to Football,” The False Nine, 13 July 2012, http://www.thefalsenine.co.uk/2012/07/13/a-philosophers-guide-to-football/ (28 July 2013).
Quoted in Philosophy Football, Philosophy football quotations, http://www.philosophyfootball.com/quotations.php (28 July 2013).
Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, trans. Mark Fried (London: Verso, 2003).
Thilo Thielke, “They’ll Put a Spell on You: The Witchdoctors of African Football,” Spiegel Online International, 11 June 2010, http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/they-ll-put-a-spell-on-you-the-witchdoctors-of-african-football-a-699704.html (26 November 2013).
Ibid.
Jeremy Wilson, “United not the greatest test of faith for Primus,” The Guardian, 27 January 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/jan/27/newsstory.sport3 (28 July 2013).
Desmond Morris, The Soccer Tribe (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981).
FIFA, “Bale: I want to help Real win Champions League,” FIFA, 2 September 2013, http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=2166551.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news (2 September 2013).
FIFA, “Pele—I was there,” FIFA, http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/players/player=63869/quotes.html (10 August 2013).
Vladimir Dimitrijević, La vida es un balón redondo, trans. Antonio Castilla Cerezo (México, D.F.: Sexto Piso, 2010), 19.
Ibid., 18.
Ibid., 24–27.
Christoph Biermann, “Franz is a god, and Jurgen a mere mortal,” The Observer, 26 March 2006.
BBC, “Zidane: Le football God,” BBC Online Network, n.d., http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/football/features/newsid_3749000/3749667.stm (12 October 2013).
World Soccer, “The Greatest Team Ever,” World Soccer, Summer 2013, 41–53.
Biermann, “Franz is a god, and Jurgen a mere mortal.”
International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), IFFHS, 2012, http://www.iffhs.de/?31748d16 (8 October 2012).
SoccerWay, “Henry hails ‘God Zidane,’” SoccerWay, 5 August 2005, http://br.soccerway.com/news/2005/august/5/henry-hails-god-zidane/ (12 October 2013).
Laurent Dubois, Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).
Soccer News, “Zidane is the best player ever, says Beckham,” Soccer News, 13 July 2008, http://www.soccernews.com/zidane-is-the-best-player-ever-says-beckham/4033/date (16 September 2012).
Ibid.
Jon Stevenson, “Zidane’s lasting legacy,” BBC Sport, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/france/5147908.stmdate (16 September 2012).
Andrew Anthony, “Zizou Top,” The Guardian, 2 July 2000, http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2000/jul/02/euro2000.sport2 (16 September 2012).
Jean-Sébastien Stehli et al., “Zidane: Icône malgré lui,” L’Express, 8 June 2006, http://web.archive.org/web/20071014204041/http://lexpress.fr/mag/sports/dossier/mondial-2006/dossier.asp?ida=438679&p=3 (16 September 2012).
Jason Burt, “Brazil 0 France 1: Zidane regains mastery to tame Brazil,” The Independent, 3 July 2006, http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/brazil-0-france-1-zidane-regains-mastery-to-tame-brazil-406473.html (12 October 2013).
Ibid.
Patrick Barclay, “Zidane has the measure of true greatness,” The Telegraph, 27 August 2000.
Jules Delay, “Zidane the greatest of all time,” Nouse, 29 January 2013, http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/01/29/zidane-the-greatest-of-all-time/ (28 July 2013).
Emilio Gentile, Politics as Religion, trans. George Staunton (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Alan G. Ingham, “The Sportification Process: A Biographical Analysis Framed by the Work of Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Freud,” in R. Giulianotti, ed., Sport and Modern Social Theorists (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 27.
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 207–216.
Ibid., 209.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 211.
Juan Villoro in Ida y Vuelta: una correspondencia sobre fútbol, Martín Caparrós and Juan Villoro (México, D.F.: Seix Barral, 2012), 133.
Chris Mann, “The 10 Largest Football Stadiums in the World,” Soccer Lens, 2009, http://soccerlens.com/largest-football-stadiums/36427/ (16 September 2012).
Ibid.
Tony Mason, Passion of the People?: Football in South America (London: Verso, 1995), 78.
Frommer’s, “Maracanã Stadium,” Frommer’s, 2013, http://www.frommers.com/destinations/rio-de-janeiro/attractions/212698 (26 November 2013).
Connie Watson, “Modernizing Brazil bulldozes its slums and soccer’s shrine,” CBC News, 10 April 2012, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/modernizing-brazil-bulldozes-its-slums-and-soccer-s-shrine-1.1141696 (26 November 2013).
Jane Lasky, “England ties Brazil at Maracana in a soccer match that almost didn’t happen,” Examiner, 2 June 2013, http://www.examiner.com/article/england-ties-brazil-at-maracana-a-soccer-match-that-almost-didn-t-happen (26 November 2013).
Martín Caparrós in Ida y Vuelta: una correspondencia sobre fútbol, 156.
IMDb, “Reviews & Ratings for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait,” IMDb, 12 April 2007, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478337/reviews (12 October 2013).
Robert K. Merton, “Introduction” in Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (New York: The Viking Press, 1960), ix–xi.
McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 209–216.
Eloy Caloca Lafont, Ocio y civilización (Querétaro, México: Tres Editores, 2013), 56.
John Bale, Sport, Space and the City (London: Routledge, 1993), 6.
Christian Derbaix, Alain Decrop, and Olivier Cabossart, “Colors and Scarves: the Symbolic Consumption of Material Possessions By Soccer Fans,” NA—Advances in Consumer Research 29 (2002), 511.
Ibid.
Ibid., 518.
Christopher Gaffney and Gilmar Mascarenhasa, “The Soccer Stadium as a Disciplinary Space,” International Michel Foucault Seminar, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianopolis, Brazil, September 21–24, 2004.
Football Italia, “Klopp: ‘Napoli a mystical experience,’” Football Italia, 17 September 2013, http://www.football-italia.net/39605/klopp-napoli-mystical-experience (26 November 2013).
Yelp, “Camp Nou: Danielle F.,” Yelp, 14 March 2013, http://www.yelp.com/biz/camp-nou-barcelona (26 November 2013).
FIFA, “Schumacher: Football is like a religion in Turkey,” FIFA, 23 November 2012, http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/news/newsid=1943797/ (27 November 2013).
Stretford End “Chants: We’ll Never Die,” Stretford-End, 2013, http://www.stretford-end.com/chants/ (28 November 2013).
Marca, “Zidane: ‘No soy un Dios, sólo soy un futbolista,’” Marca, 25 December 2003, http://archivo.marca.com/primeras/03/12/1226.html (12 October 2013).
Enrique Ghersi and Andrés Roemer, eds., ¿Por qué amamos el fútbol? Un enfoque de política pública (México, D.F.: Miguel Ángel Porrúa, 2008), 31–32.