Brand building and image perception in women football: a cross-country comparison between Brazil and Germany

Abstract

ABSTRACT While women’s football (WF) experienced exponential growth after the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the drivers for building players’ personal brands (PB) remain opaque to our understanding of the sport’s image. The purpose of this research is to provide a cross-country multidimensional comparison and multi-method exploration of this process based on self-presentation and gender roles. Thus, a mixed-method approach was adopted, encompassing: (1) a content analysis of Brazilian and German elite players’ Instagram posts (n = 278); (2) in-depth interviews with national team players of both nationalities (n = 9); and (3) a survey with football fans of both countries (n = 430). The collective and embedded construction of a player’s PB as well as the global branding of WF are addressed in the discussion, contributing to the current debate surrounding athletes’ brand construction in social media, from a multi-dimensional and comparative perspective.