ABSTRACT
Hope, migration, and labor are intimately tied to sports migration processes. While hope, desire, and migration are ubiquitous in sports studies, this chapter asks: What comes after hope? In other words, how do established athletes living away from their country of origin see their employment conditions? The question “What comes after hope?” is inspired by Jack Halberstam’s book The Queer Art of Failure. Halberstam recognized that by asking, “What comes after hope?” we engage in a political project, a search for a way to live differently. Professional athletes interviewed were Brazilian men, mostly in their 30s and early 40s, with extensive international experience. These athletes invariably described injuries as “crisis moments” and reflected on the various conditions clubs provided them for recovery. These moments helped players examine the precarious conditions they face. Players also told me how their religious beliefs helped them during these crises. In this sense, when already recognized professional athletes playing abroad face the question “What comes after hope?” they answer “pain”. This introduction aims to understand how a group of migrant athletes deal with the contingencies of their careers abroad and how precarity affects these migrant players’ lives and careers.
