Moving Away: Intra-National Migration Experiences of Brazilian Men Elite Futsal Players During Youth

Abstract

Migration experiences are common for athletes, especially in team sports. Moving from home to a recruiting sport club has become an indispensable career investment. This is also the case in Brazilian futsal, where many developing players move to more promising clubs within the country. This process is often challenging, but little researched. The purpose of this article is to investigate 13 Brazilian men elite futsal players’ intra-national migration experiences during their youth. We aim to: provide insight into what factors allowed players to invest in a futsal career through migration; demonstrate the challenges young players faced during their migration; and describe how they adapted to the futsal context they had moved to. We use a Bourdieusian framework to examine young futsal players’ disposition to intra-national migration and the influence of capitals on their integration in the receiving places. A thematic analysis allowed us to identify that: Players’ disposition to migration was shaped by their families’ habitus and illusio related to futsal; some of the reported issues could have been avoided if clubs had provided more efficient support to young migrant athletes; and families and networks (social capital) were key for players being able to adapt to the new futsal context.