Tirando Fronteras, Creando Juego

critical reflections on football, migration, and the construction of citizenship in Barcelona

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/ra.v18i1.103212

Abstract

This essay reflects on the experience of the socio-sports project “Tirando Fronteras, Creando Juego” (2021-2024), a community-based initiative in Barcelona that used football as a psychosocial intervention tool to support vulnerable young migrants. Through a reflective approach that incorporates the voices of its coordinators, the essay explores the emergence of affective networks and forms of practical citizenship that challenge the induced precarity of the Spanish migration regime. The analysis focuses on how football operates as a universal language that enables community bonds and becomes the territory of a chosen family. It also discusses the institutional tensions between the logic of community sport and traditional structures, revealing the project's capacity to function as a micropolitical rhizome where migrant bodies exert resistance, build belonging, and articulate new forms of collective care and social participation.

Author Biographies

Carolina Neiza Alvarez, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Carolina Neiza Alvarez is a psychologist from the University of Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She earned a master's degree in sports and exercise psychology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research interests focus on applied psychology in sports and community settings.

Nicolás Marcle, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Siglo XXI University, Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.
Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Barcelona.

Débora Majul, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Débora Majul is a CONICET doctoral fellow working at the “María Saleme de Burnichon” Research Center of the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. She holds a degree in Psychology, a Master's degree in Psychosocial Intervention and Research, and is a doctoral candidate in Gender Studies at the Center for Advanced Studies of the National University of Córdoba. She is a member of the Research Group on Sport in Contemporary Society, based at the Gino Germani Research Institute (IIGG) of the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires; the Social Observatory of Sport at the Interdisciplinary School of Advanced Social Studies (IDAES) of the National University of San Martín (UNSAM); and the CLACSO Working Group on Sport, Culture, and Society.

Downloads

Published

2026-07-01

How to Cite

Neiza Alvarez, C., Marcle, N., & Majul, D. (2026). Tirando Fronteras, Creando Juego: critical reflections on football, migration, and the construction of citizenship in Barcelona. The Journal of the Latin American Socio-Cultural Studies of Sport (ALESDE), 18(1), 209–231. https://doi.org/10.5380/ra.v18i1.103212

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2026): Dossier: Physical Education, Sport, and Body Practices in Border Contexts

Section

Dossiês

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

(a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

(b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

(c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).