Quote:
Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm
What I find much harder to understand is why this still persists when players move from club to club, country to country; and even play for a league-type team in one country but in things like the WC play for a completely different country (the Serbian who scored the goal in their match against Germany also plays for Liverpool, according to several Liverpool supporters at work). I mean, I understand it in commodity and earnings terms, but with all that movement I don't understand what the fans are supporting.
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Milorad Jovanović still plays for
Standard de Liège. He signed a deal with Liverpool and will join them on July 1st.
I can not talk about the fans for other nations (I assume it is not much different), but Serbs have no problems with the identification. Although most of their players play in foreign teams, they:
- still have Serbian citizenship
- have been born and raised in Serbia, started their careers in local clubs
- will likely switch several clubs and countries by the end of their careers.
- will likely never play for the selection of another country.
While discussion about the clubs is open, the nation-state and citizenship can hardly be compared with the tribe and tribal mentality. At least there is a specific language and identification with the common culture.
I don't follow soccer in general, but I won't miss a single game that I can catch when it is played by any national selection. The game is different, it is not (only) about the money.