Abstract
ABSTRACT Qatar 2022 World Cup provides a unique opportunity to explore how Zimbabwean football fans play out their ‘Africanness’ through supporting African teams. Most studies on transnational fandoms tend to focus on the growth of European football fandoms across the continent. Yet, there are transnational fandoms that are more regional and ‘localized’ to the continent. This paper uses the case of Zimbabwean soccer fans to explore these transnational fandoms within the context of supporting African teams at the Qatar World Cup. It utilized interviews with fans at various watching spaces during the competition and cyber ethnography focusing on the most popular social media sites related to Zimbabwean football. My main argument is that our understanding of transnational fandoms is enhanced by explaining the creation, recreation, celebration, and contestations related to supporting another African national football team. This is mainly because research has shown that football is intricately linked to national, ethnic, and social identities.
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