Who do we cheer for?
“Who are you cheering for?” It is one of the simplest questions in sports and one we are constantly hearing now that the World Cup is underway. At first glance, the answer seems obvious. You cheer for your country. The world of sports, after all, is among the few remaining institutions that require us to declare where our loyalty lies so openly. Flags hang from buildings, national anthems echo before matches, and television broadcasts divide the world into familiar categories of “us” and “them.” In doing so, sporting events transform abstract ideas of identity and belonging into something visible, shared and deeply emotional. During the matches we are keeping up with this World Cup, for 90 minutes, the complexity of modern life gives way to a simple proposition: choose a side. Yet the more we talked about it, the more we realized how difficult that question has become for many people. Defining what “your country” means is no longer a straightforward answer. Perhaps it was easier in another time. Many of our parents and grandparents spent most of their lives close to where th
