The “dream” of being a footballer.

Considerations on the fantasies, motivations and imaginaries in the trajectories of soccer players of formative categories in Argentina.

Abstract

This article focuses on the professionalization process of male football players in Argentina. After having analyzed in previous works different dimensions on which the professionalization process of football players in Argentine, Mexican and French clubs is sustained, in this text we approach the construction and reproduction of the "dream" of becoming a professional football player, through an ethnographic approach carried out in a club of the fourth division in Argentina.

Working on the "dream" allows us to investigate the multiplicity of elements that come together in the continuity of the amateur career, from family influence or relationships within the club, to the fantasies that arise from the media. The hypothesis is that the "dream" is built from childhood and throughout the trajectories of young players, and that it’s sustained or reproduced in clubs through values, stories, experiences or fantasies that in some cases are promoted by the clubs so that the players offer their maximum performance. This implies working on the biographical plane, on the trajectories and on repertoires or dispositions that may be operating in the perception and action of young players in said spaces.