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Who's flexible and who isn't?


In football there is a tenacious desire for clarity. Football people are more open in saying that origin and local traditions play decisive roles. "The success of this sport", writes the renowned Spanish author and Real Madrid fan Javier Marias in a book of essays about football, "can be attributed to its element of feeling, which is also its quintessence, and it is difficult to take ten or eleven mere salaried employees to your heart.

A player who has grown up with the rivalry between Madrid and Barca or Athletic and San Sebastian or Sevilla and Betis since childhood approaches such matches with an energy that would be unthinkable for a foreigner. [-] In contrast, it is not permitted for the entire Ajax team to put on the blue-and-red shirt and in this way transform themselves into Barca."

Similarly, Thomas Brussig, author of Helden wie wir ['Heroes Like Us'] and Leben bis Männer ('Life Before Manhood'), admits in an interview in 2003: "I believe football has permanently transformed itself and through professionalisation it is transforming itself again. [-] What remains of Cottbus for the Energie Cottbus fan when eleven foreign players are on the pitch?"

Yet football migrants and transfers between clubs have always been a part of the game. And in an era when performance and mobility are all-important, professional clubs and their fans, in particular, are walking a very fine line if they place their faith in regional tradition and identity.