Geography of champions: migration, labour force and nationality of Argentinians and French at the Qatar 2022 World Cup

Abstract

The 2022 Men's World Cup in Qatar has attracted attention due to the multinationality of the players and the transnational composition of the participating teams. The aim of this article is to promote a debate around this sport as the face of the current phase of globalization, which breaks with the boundaries of the past and connects labor migration flows to the question of the nationality (or dual nationality) of the players. We worked based on the two finalist teams, Argentina and France, which have notable differences in terms of the birthplace and citizenship of their players. We believe that football increasingly reflects the effects of a globalized world in which economic power is gradually being felt in the professional lives of football stars. Cartographic production is an important methodological step in this work.