“No son nadie”. Un abordaje de la posición liminal en el fútbol juvenil

Abstract

Based on an ethnography conducted in a Buenos Aires football club (2019-2022), this article analyzes the stage of the youth footballer as a liminal period and asks whether, throughout this process, a transformation of their social position occurs. The data collected show that, unlike studies on other disciplines, the accounts of aspiring players do not display an explicit existential rupture in their biographies. Two complementary hypotheses are proposed: first, that aggregation does not emerge from the training process itself, but rather from gradual sporting success, which confers economic and social capital. Second, that the sporting career produces a transformation in the relationship with the practice and in the way players speak about it, grounded in the experience of bodily sacrifice; in this way, social networks expand and peer recognition grows, generating opportunities that were previously unavailable. The career thus enables a progressive transformation of identity associated with the development of networks and the demonstration of capital, making it possible to establish a differentiation from the uninitiated fan.