Post-retirement blues in the shadow of Joe Tubuna: the post-retirement struggles of Fiji’s indigenous soccer elite

Abstract

This article uses the qualitative ‘narrative analysis’ method to explore and reflect upon the post-retirement issues faced by a small sample of Fiji elite ex-national-league soccer players. The sample consists of one Indo-Fijian and six indigenous Fijians. All experience lives of practical poverty and, for the indigenous men, their lives are defined by village customary routines and obligations. Perhaps surprisingly, the experiences of the Indo-Fijian ex-player are not too dissimilar because he shares social-class affiliation with his interviewed ex-teammates. The bonds between these ex-players remain strong and the ex-legend Joe Tubuna, killed in a motor-vehicle accident in 1984, still casts a presence which links them to the past, to the land, and to each other via the medium of shared localized memories.