Soccer Superstitions
very once in a while, stories pop up in the Western press about odd goings-on at a soccer match in a remote part of the world. These stories contain sordid details of spells placed by witch doctors, animals sacrificed by fans, or objects burned by those seeking to affect the outcome of a game.
An African witch doctor (photo: Moonbattery.com)
In the summer of 2006, for example, a story came out which suggested that the Angolan national team was going to bring a witch doctor to the upcoming World Cup (manager Luis Oliveira Goncalves denied his team was going to receive any supernatural assistance).
The 2000 African Cup of Nations was tarred by suspicious events in the quarter-final between Senegal and Nigeria in which
… a former official of the Nigerian FA raced on to the pitch and seized a ‘charm’ that had been lying in the back of the Senegal net. Senegal protested, but to no avail, and Nigeria went on to score twice and win. The official was subsequently banned, but his action was seen as hugely significant in Nigeria’s progress.
African Soccer magazine once ran a “10-page investigation into witchcraft in football, detailing animal sacrifices, self-mutilation, casting of spells, lucky charms, odious concoctions and a one-hour delay at an international match while teams argued about who would be first to step on to the pitch.”
This phenomenon is not limited to Africa. Before each game at the 2006 World Cup, “Mexico’s grand wizard carrie[d] out two rituals a day for the country’s … team, invoking ‘Holy Death’ in front of a plastic skeleton to protect them and bring them luck.”
Ecuador’s national team brought along Tzamarenda Naychapi, described by the Guaridan as a witch doctor-cum-shaman-cum-priest-type-fella, although his juju wasn’t that powerful, as his team were knocked out by England in the round of 16.
Tzamarenda Naychapi is also a hit with the ladies (photo: AP/ Franka Bruns)
It’s easy to see these practices as strange, but are they? Soccer players and fans may do so in different ways, but don’t people around the world do strange things to help their team?
Take the act of players crossing themselves, which many do so as they enter the field, after missing a shot, or after scoring a goal. This act is intended to bring the player good fortune or to give thanks to God for having received the strength to score a goal, etc.
There are also a multitude of pre-game rituals that Westerners carry out to help their team’s cause. In his book The Soccer Tribe, Desmond Morris discusses several of what he calls these “soccer superstitions.” He writes about players always stays at the same hotel when playing away, a team that always plays a round of golf before a match, and even a player who required his wife to wash the windows on match day as “she was doing just that when he last had a great game” (151).
Pre-game rituals alone are worthy of a book (Morris writes “of one hundred soccer superstitions, collected at random, no fewer than 40 per cent were concentrated in the pre-match dressing room”). They include always lacing up boots in a prescribed order, always entering the field first or last, and wearing a lucky charm during a match (FIFA’s recent crack down on jewelry has made this more difficult).
Holland’s Ruud Krol with his lucky necklace at the 1978 World Cup (photo: BBC)
Shoes, not surprisingly, play a central role in many soccer superstitions. Cameron Kippen at the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia writes that “In 1908 when goal-scoring ace, George Hedley played for Woverhampton Wanderers he scored a goal against Newcastle causing one of his favourite boots to split. Despite being offered a new pair Hedley steadfastly refused and saw the game to completion with one tattered boot. The player had his favourite boots patched up at least 17 times before eventually and somewhat reluctantly parting with them.”
The most recent, and most hilarious, incarnation of the soccer superstition was Stuart Pearce and his lucky mascot, Beanie the Horse. Given to him by his daughter when he was manager of Manchester City, Pearce placed his equine buddy in the technical area, claiming it brought his team luck (Psycho lost his job later that season, so perhaps it wasn’t that lucky).
Stuart “Psycho” Pearce (right) and Beanie the Horse (left) (photo: BBC)
Western soccer superstitions make sense to us Westerners (well, maybe not Beanie the Horse). Crossing oneself, for example, makes complete sense in a society rooted in Christianity, but to someone unfamiliar with Western ways it would be as strange as witch doctors often appear to us. As Horace Miner points out in his classic essay Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, nearly all cultural practices appear odd if one does not understand the context in which they exist. It is easy to see a practice like those employed by African players and fans as something as “foreign” and “strange”; it is far more difficult to recognize how similar it is to our own actions.The practices of African witch doctors and Stuart Pearce may seem very different, but they both have the same goal: to help one’s own team win. The means may be very different, but the ends are identical.
Desmond Morris’s words could describe players in any part of the world.
[Players] seek additional aid of a kind their trainers and managers cannot give them – the supernatural aid of superstitious practices. They have no idea how such actions can help, but they perform them all the same, ‘just in case’. They frequently call them ridiculous and stupid, but they dare not omit them (150).
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July 24th, 2007 21:54
Another great post. One request — it’d be nice to have links / attribution to the photographs that you use, especially if they come in larger sizes.
Thanks for the great writing!
July 24th, 2007 22:06
Ben – You are completely right. I have actually thought about that as I’ve posted photos, but I regularly forget to add the attributions. I added them on this post and will do so for future posts. Thanks for the reminder!
July 24th, 2007 22:08
Wonderful post. Are you going to write a book on football yourself one day?
July 24th, 2007 22:10
Jay – Thanks for your kind comment. My father, who is a writer (check out http://www.ralphkeyes.com/) wants me to, but since I’m just about to start grad school, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for that. The book I would hope to write would be about the diversity of American soccer culture. When people think about American soccer, they only consider wealthy, white suburban kids. While they are one important group of people who play soccer in this country, they are far from the only ones and I’d like to document the wide range of people involved with the sport in this country.
July 25th, 2007 10:50
In a way, fans “rooting” for their team while watching television could be rooted in magical thinking of some sort.
Also, we sport our team shirts with out favorite players, desiring to participate in their whateverness. Isn’t there something a little totemistic in that?
We couldn’t explain it all this way. For instance, much of it surely involves identity and social recognition. There must be a blend of factors at work.
July 25th, 2007 11:00
[...] Some players love their superstitions (Culture of Soccer) [...]
July 25th, 2007 13:06
David, good luck with your studies. Maybe try to do some football journalism afterwards. And then write that book! Obviously you’ve seen a need to write about this neglected aspect of American soccer, but I think you could cover other cultures too. It’s a fertile subject because football is everything to all people. Best of luck.
July 26th, 2007 14:24
Jason – Excellent points.
Jay – I would like to cover soccer in the rest of the world. As you’ve probably noticed, my interest is not just in American soccer. However, the plan that I mentioned would cover a lot about immigrants playing soccer in the US and in that sense would be more international.
One other idea I’ve had is to write a primer on anthtropology using sports, especially soccer, as examples to explain basic concepts. Since I’m getting my PhD in anthro, I’ll have a good knowledge of the discipline and can hopefully use my interest in sports to help others understand and appreciate anthropology more.
If you have any suggestions for book ideas about the rest of the world, I’d love to hear them.
July 26th, 2007 21:28
Culture of Soccer is working it’s way up the ranks to become my favorite website. A fantastic read awaits with every new posting. I too think David should write a book. He has a gift and would would purchase it in a heartbeat. Especially if it was a book centered around soccer in America. But for now I will settle for what I can find here in the States and what my old man can pick up for me when he goes to England on business trips.
An interesting subject to be included, I think, in a book about soccer culture in America would be the players who defect from Cuba and come play in the MLS. The stories of these men are sure to be interesting.
July 29th, 2007 00:21
Great post as always. Speaking of superstitions in football, here’s an example from Spain:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/continentalfootball/story/0,,2048473,00.html
July 30th, 2007 08:15
David, would it be too much to ask for links to AP / BBC photographs as well? I like to look at larger photos…..
Thanks for the great blogging!
July 30th, 2007 21:15
Ben – I’ll do it in the future. I’m afraid I don’t have the time to do it for this post.
October 28th, 2007 15:13
Oh man please!!!
January 5th, 2008 09:50
Hi Soccer Community,
this is Oliver.
If I may, I´d like to contribute to your very interesting conversation on rituals / magic / witchcraft in Football.
After a stiff theoretical research, I was travelling with a my crew for several months in Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Rep. of South Africa and Swaziland (2005 / 2006).
I was glad to be introduced to CAF directors, National Coaches, club coaches, football officials on all levels, players, managers, Ministers of Sport and Education, National Football Ass., teamadvisers and medical Doctors.
I also had the great opportunity to conduct & to film large scale interviews / secret ceremonies with traditional healers / spiritual mediums, witchdoctors, mushongas, Inyangas, Juju men ect. (various categories, the names change due to ethnic background / function).
My 1st motivation as an author and documentary film producer / director was simply to separate the “cooked stories” in newspapers and the internet (for instance “the team of 11 congolese players killed by lightning”) from the myths and the relevant parts / true elements of narrations, traditions and ceremonies and so called witchcraft practices.
I had met with a lot of wonderful people in those african countries and I have learned a few things on the players motivation to visit a witchdoctor. (Or sometimes they were sent by the management against their own conviction to take part in a “special project” / witchcraft ceremony or magic ritual.
Feel free to study a small part of a very intense interview with a Mushonga in South Africa´s Limpopo Province, bordering Zimbabwe:
Mushonga:
“I have been a mushonga, a traditional healer and witchdoctor since 1971. Mainly footballers come to me for help, although other sportsmen or even scientists consult me too. Players usually come on their own to get advice, because they haven’t played well or simply haven’t scored enough goals. Sometimes the whole team comes with managers. They say they need more luck, or something to bring them luck. We mushongas can help.
I advise players from “Vaal Professionals”, the “Kaizer Chiefs” and the “Moroka Swallows”. I’ve helped a lot of other teams, but I’ve had close contacts to these teams for a long time. In fact, I’ve worked with them since the clubs were founded.
In my experience, most people are afraid to openly admit that they practise such rituals because they go to church on Sundays with the Bible under their arms!
(…)
But God is there for us all! This confuses a lot of athletes. They worship God or pray for good luck, but that won’t happen! Because sport is a “game” and you don’t need God when you’re playing a game. God is not a gambler!
That’s why you need a mushonga like me, to be lucky. God is there for us all: that’s why he can’t protect one person or a team and leave the others alone!”
Maybe it this of interest for you.
Best,
Oliver
September 21st, 2008 07:40
[...] has his lucky shin pads and Robbie Keane has his lucky routine too. Anf thats not to mention the strange superstitions that some African teams have. But what do you do when you find that your good luck charm is to stay [...]