Identity, nation‐state and football in Spain. the evolution of nationalist feelings in Spanish Football

Abstract

This essay shows the importance of the identity component in the development of Spanish football from its birth at the beginning of the twentieth century, when football was organized at a regional level, until the present time when football reflects the democratic and post‐national Spain created after the arrival of democracy in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The essay expounds the existence of four periods in the development of the nationalistic feelings with which Spanish football has been embodied: the pre‐national or regional period, the period of Spanish nationalization, the period of strengthening of peripheral nationalisms and the post‐national period. In order to explain each of these periods, the role and symbolic representation of the Spanish National Team, Real Madrid, Barcelona FC, Athletic de Bilbao, among others, will be examined.