Description
Book SynopsisWith Following the Ball, Todd Cleveland incorporates labor, sport, diasporic, and imperial history to examine the extraordinary experiences of African football players from Portugal’s African colonies as they relocated to the metropole from 1949 until the conclusion of the colonial era in 1975.
Trade Review“[
Following the Ball and
Football and Colonialism] convincingly demonstrate that the histories of Mozambican football and of African migrants in Portugal have value and deserve to be told in their own right. … Individually and together, these impressive books greatly deepen our knowledge and understanding of football and society in Africa and Europe. I highly recommend them to specialists and general readers interested in sport, African Studies, and globalization.” * Idrottsforum *
“The great impact that this book will have is not only to look at colonialism through soccer and the experiences of African players in various Portuguese colonial contexts, but—more significantly—to refocus discussions of colonialism and cultural practices on the local and colonized.”
“Cleveland guides the reader to not only follow the journeys of these men, but through his analysis of their movements, to gain new awareness of the historical conditions that characterized the places of departure and the places of arrival.”
“By examining the international space of football in a single analytic field and simultaneously considering Portuguese football’s constituent settings, the experiences of African football players, and the specificities of the political conjuncture, Following the Ball is a vital examination of Portuguese football during colonialism and constitutes an indispensable source for further historical studies on football.” * Histoire sociale / Social History, Vol. 54, N. 110 (May 2021) *
