The Game of the Italians: Football and Dual Identity in Argentina 1910-1935

Abstract

"In 1934 Italy won the football World Cup with four Argentine-born players in their squad. Whilst this reflected Argentine footballing excellence during the era, it was also recognition of the close relationship between Italian and Argentine national identity born from mass immigration from Italy to Argentina at the turn of the twentieth century. Using the case study of football, this paper challenges existing assumptions surrounding national identity construction in Argentina that has largely neglected the role of dual identity amongst immigrant groups, and which has focused instead on assimilation and a discourse of the Argentine ‘melting pot’ in bringing these disparate elements into a national whole. In contrast to a concurrent narrative of nativizing Argentine football from British influence in the 1910s, this paper makes the case that it was the Italo-Argentine community that held influence in the sport, both at a playing and boardroom level over the next two decades. It will demonstrate how football afforded Italo-Argentine community the opportunity to celebrate both their Argentine and Italian identity through the example of Genoa’s 1923 tour to Argentina. Moreover, we examine how the reverse migration of footballers from Argentina to Italy from 1910 further complicated ideas of national identity. Keywords: Sport; Identity; Argentina; Migration; Ethnicity; Assimilation"