Wings For Wheels

Yesterday Aaron tweeted a link to this article by Simon Kuper, the noted author of several excellent books that look at world soccer through political and economic angles. The World Cup would normally be a perfect opportunity for his brand of analysis, which is why I was disappointed by his piece. Judging by the events on display over the past month in South Africa, he concludes that soccer no longer explains the world, a reference to Franklin Foer’s renown book that touches on Kuper’s ground.

My first thought was, “It’s a transatlantic duel between intellectual Jewish soccer geeks,” so naturally I felt a need to get involved in it. But I got busy with a few other things and couldn’t get to this until just now. Kuper writes:

The sorry truth is that the World Cup is losing its geopolitical meaning altogether…soccer is ceasing to explain the world. There were still some political observations to make about the host country, South Africa, and the winning country, Spain. But for the most part, this tournament exemplified how everywhere on Earth is becoming the same place.

I agree with every point Kuper’s article makes, except for that conclusion. It’s not that soccer no longer explains the world, but rather that it explains a new and different world. He even says as much.

So why have the geopolitics drained from soccer? First, because the world has changed. The era of dictatorships, hypernationalism, country vs. country wars, and festering resentments held over from World War II is passing. Most wars today are civil wars.

…

These days, however, the World Cup rewards globalization, and the homogenization of styles helped make this a post-nationalist World Cup. Everyone plays much the same way now… The key to success in modern soccer seems to be to dilute your inherited national style.

He’s right that countries that stuck with their traditional stereotypes (notably England and Italy) underperformed where countries that veered away from them and incorporated other national styles (notably Spain and Germany) did well. But at a time where I can explore and communicate with the world without ever leaving my apartment, then isn’t soccer reflecting a world that’s more interconnected than ever before?