Abstract
The preceding chapter explored how African football migrants have to acclimate to the Swedish elite game in order to succeed in Allsvenskan. Chapter 5, meanwhile, listed some of the most common reasons these players’ careers in Sweden have been cut short. Such tribulations (injuries, etc.), however, potentially affect all professional footballers, so this chapter will instead concentrate on those challenges that are more specific to African imports. In particular, it will show that these problems are not just rooted in differing approaches to the game but also caused by the stress of having to adjust to new cultural and social norms off the pitch.
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Notes
Filippo M. Ricci, Elephants, Lions and Eagles: A Journey through African Football (London: WSC Books, 2008) 70.
John Bale, “Three Geographies of African Footballer Migration: Patterns, Problems and Postcoloniality,” in Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti (eds.), Football in Africa: Conflict, Conciliation and Community (New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2004) 239;
Peter Alegi, African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game (Columbus: University of Ohio Press, 2010) 93.
Pierre Lanfranchi and Matthew Taylor, Moving with the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers (New York: Berg, 2001) 179.
Gaim Kibreab and Woldu Kidane, “Eritreanska Flyktingar i Sverige,” in Statens Invandrarverk, Afrikaner i Sverige (Stockholm: Statens Invandrarverk, 1983) 81–83;
Luyinda Ssemakula, Afrikansk och svensk kultur i möte (Västerås: Malpo Books, 1998) 31–35, 52–59.
For a specific illustration, see Anders Bengtsson, Tobias Regnell, and Henrik Ystén (eds.), Offside: Fotbollens Bästa Sidor ([n.l.]: Offside Press AB, 2010) 289–90.
Cecila Gärding (ed.), Afrosvensk i det nya Sverige (Stockholm: Afrosvenskarnas Riksförbund, 2009) 75–76; Statens Invandrarverk, Afrikaner i Sverige, 90–91.
Paul Darby, “Out of Africa: The Exodus of Elite African Football Talent to Europe” Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society 10 (2007): 446.
Viktorija Kalonaityté et al., Att Färgas av Sverige: Upplevelser av diskriminering och rasism bland ungdomar med afrikansk bakgrund i Sverige (Stockholm: Ombudsmannen Mot Etnisk Diskriminering, 2008) 43, 46; Christian Bawa Yamba, “En Afrikans Möte Med Sverige,” in Statens Invandrarverk, Afrikaner i Sverige, 29–30.
Ingvar Svanberg and Mattias Tydén, Tusen år av invandring: En Svensk Kulturhistoria, 3rd edition (Stockholm: Dialogs, 2005) 372.
In Sweden, the most violent racist attacks against immigrants and refugees have historically taken place in rural areas and not in the larger urban areas where most actually immigrants live. Tore Björgo, “Terrorist Violence toward Immigrants and Refugees in Scandinavia: Patterns and Motives,” in Tore Björgo and Rob Witte (eds.), Racist Violence in Europe (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993) 34. See also Kalonaityté et al., Att Färgas av Sverige, 43.
Sarah Nakiito, “Livet i diasporan,” in Kolade Stephens (ed.), Afrikansksvenska röster: En antologi om afrikansksvenskarnas situation i, och tankar om, Sverige (Stockholm: Notis, 2009) 48, 51; Gärding (ed.), Afrosvensk i det nya Sverige, 167.
Raffaele Poli, “Football Players Migration in Europe: A Geo-Economic Approach to Africans’ Mobility,” in Jonathan Magee et al. (eds.), The Bountiful Game? Football Identities and Finances (Oxford: Meyer and Meyer Sport, 2005) 227.
Les Back, Tim Crabbe, and John Solomos, The Changing Face of Football: Racism, Identity and Multiculture in the English Game (New York: Berg, 2001) 158–59;
Roman Horak and Matthias Marschik, “Football, Racism and Xenophobia in Austria: ‘If You Let Them They Behave like Mafia,’” in Udo Merkel and Walter Tokarski (eds.), Racism and Xenophobia in European Football (Anchen, FRG: Meyer & Meyer Verlag, 1996) 41–56.
Yves Pallade, Christophe Villinger, and Deidre Berger, Anti-Semitism and Racism in European Soccer (Berlin: American Jewish Committee Berlin Office/Center for German-Jewish Relations, 2007) 9;
Franklin Foer, How Soccer Explains the World (New York: Harper Collins, 2004) 141–66.
Paul Darby, “Out of Africa: The Exodus of Elite African Football Talent to Europe” Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society 10 (2007): 449.
Michiko Hase, “Race in Soccer as a Global Sport,” in John Bloom and Michael N. Willard (eds.) Sport Matters: Race, Recreation, and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2002) 306–7; Poli, “Migrations and Trade of African Football Players,” 407–8, 410–11.
Henrik Ystén, “Outsidern,” in Anders Bengtsson et al. (eds.) Offside: Fotbollens Bästa Sidor ([n.l.]: Offside Press AB, 2010) 218.
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© 2015 Carl-Gustaf Scott
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Scott, CG. (2015). The African Football Experience in Sweden. In: African Footballers in Sweden. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137535092_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137535092_7
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