In a football bubble: Cultural transition narratives of Swedish elite football players

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate cultural transition experience in elite football. More specifically, to explore three Swedish football players experience of their first transition abroad when relocating to play professional football in Europe. A narrative inquiry approach was used, with help of the cultural transition model (Ryba, Stambulova, & Ronkainen, 2016) a semi-structured interview guide was created. The cultural transition model was also used as a lens for analyzing the data. The participants were non-randomly sampled and recruited with help from the Swedish Football Federation. Four players responded positively and initiated the interview, three was fully conducted while one dropped out. The data were analyzed with holistic-content and categorical-content analysis to show three unique pathways but also common themes of their cultural transitions. The first result showed the uniqueness of the players pathways; preparing for the worst and saved by the football bubble, taking responsibility and a key role as a foreign player to gain respect in the team, and a big step for personal development: from homesickness to being hungry for more. Secondly, the result showed that the participant shared experience in the cultural transition process which are presented in 12 themes (e.g. Pre-transition phase: satisfaction in Swedish club before leaving, Acute cultural adaptation phase: adjustment in football as first priority in host culture, and Sociocultural adaptation: perceived ability and efficacy to adjust to new cultural settings). In conclusion, adaptation in football was prioritized during the first period of relocation, that means that they fully invested to show that they were good. However, after this first phase, having a meaningful life besides football became one of the most important things to feel satisfied. Although there are still questions unanswered regarding cultural transition in elite football, implications to Swedish Football Federation were given in further working with professional players who go abroad.