Non-Native Sons
The globalization of soccer has distanced players from national fan bases—which is why the World Cup provokes such identity crises
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Geoffrey Wheatcroft has written
for The Atlantic on subjects as diverse as Margaret Thatcher and Salman Rushdie, the
Republic of Ireland and the island of Antigua, and has been affiliated over the years with
some of England's best-known publications. In the late 1970s he was a columnist for
The Spectator, and also its literary editor. In the following years he was first the editor
of the "Londoner's Diary" in the Evening Standard and then that newspaper's opera
critic. He is currently a columnist for the Daily Express. In the interstices of regular
employment he has written many freelance articles and published two
books—The
Randlords (1985), a study of South African mining magnates,
and Absent Friends
(1989), a collection of biographical sketches. His new book, The Controversy
of Zion,
about the history of Zionism, was published in September, 1996, by
Addison-Wesley. He is also a frequent contributor to The New
York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The
Guardian.
The globalization of soccer has distanced players from national fan bases—which is why the World Cup provokes such identity crises
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