主办单位:成都体育学院
ISSN 1001-9154 CN 51-1097/G8

Journal of Chengdu Sport University ›› 2024, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (2): 16-25.doi: 10.15942/j.jcsu.2024.02.003

• SOCCER CULTURE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A Study on theTransnational Mobility of World Elite Soccer Players and Its Influencing Factors

SUN Jian   

  1. School of Physical Education, Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong 264025
  • Received:2023-05-01 Revised:2023-10-02 Published:2024-04-18

Abstract: The transnational mobility of the world elite soccer players is not only a social phenomenon, but also a hotspot of concern in the sports academia. In order to have a more accurate understanding and awareness of this sports phenomenon, and at the same time to provide reference for the formulation of the future development strategy of Chinese soccer, this study analyzed for the first time the transnational mobility of the players who participated in the last four World Cups through the methods of documents and mathematical statistics, that is, analyzed the data on the workplaces of the athletes who participated in the 18th to 21st World Cup Final Stage. The study found that in the final stage of the 18th-21st World Cup, a total of 1,835 players made transnational mobility, among which the number of players in the five countries (regions) of England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France was the largest, with a total of 1,159 players, accounting for 63.16% of the total number of players who made transnational mobility, and the world soccer talents were “gathered in Europe”. The Matthew effect of “European aggregation”, especially “aggregation of the five major leagues in Europe”, is very obvious. The study concludes that the factors affecting the transnational mobility of world elite soccer players mainly include economic factors, historical and cultural factors, policy factors, and personal factors, but in essence, economic factors play a leading role.

Key words: soccer players, World Cup, transnational mobility, influencing factors

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