ABSTRACT
In the twenty-first century the debate over national identity in Spain is as vibrant as ever, and one of the principal arenas in which this debate is conducted is the press, which acts as an important vector for the transmission of images pertinent to the concept of Spanish identities. Many ideas about Spanish identity are communicated by the sports pages of newspapers in Spain and, indeed, throughout Europe. The European print media are devoting ever more column inches to sport in general and to football in particular as both ‘quality’ and ‘tabloid’ newspapers alike recognize the increasing socio-economic importance of football, the world’s most popular sport, and the commercial value that successful and extensive coverage of it brings. How, then, does the discourse deployed by European football writing contribute to the representation of Spain and Spanish identities? In what terms is ‘Spanishness’ constructed by this increasingly important and often politicized section of the European media?
