Maradona Inc: Performance politics off the pitch

Abstract

This article addresses the blurring boundaries between celebrity, media sports, cultural identity and politics. I explore the case of media sport star Diego Maradona, whose strategies of public representation highlight the way in which politics and popular culture can overlap. First, the article offers a general overview of the theorization of football in Latin America. Central to my discussion is the problematic use of concepts like 'identity' and 'belonging' to define football politics. I insist on a theoretical reformulation of political culture in global contexts, and point to an understanding of media personalities such as Maradona as currency within markets of cultural and political production. This analysis suggests that 'Maradona Inc.' can be understood as a corporate and performative semiosphere that is continuously shifting, so that fans can project onto the fetish-like and vacant image of the celebrity whatever they wish. Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications.