Soccer... do you really need it!?

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the relationship between soccer and identity creation/reconstruction. It also aims to raise social, cultural, political, and individual aspects that make soccer a choice which locates the subject in his/her group, inserts him/her socially and invests feelings and peculiar directions to such a subject, these ones related to the soccer association, the groups of cheerers and the passion, thus presenting the reason to really become a fan of a team. Soccer is much more than just a mere entertainment. When we understand it as a “safety valve”, we perceive the subject of power game and of identities present in the real and symbolic production and reproduction of its elements in daily life — in the past and currently.