ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. The History, Culture and Sociology of Sports
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1595501
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Multidisciplinary Roles of Sports EventsView all 3 articles
Constructing National Identity: Media Narratives on the Naturalization of Football Players in Indonesia
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia
- 2University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java, Indonesia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study explores how Indonesian media construct narratives surrounding the naturalization of foreign-born football players and their implications for national identity. Drawing on 52 media articles from major national outlets published between January 2022 and April 2025, the research employs a qualitative content analysis grounded in a multi-theoretical framework that includes imagined communities (Anderson), identity representation (Hall), and thick vs. thin citizenship (Oonk). The findings reveal three dominant media frames: (1) naturalized players as national assets who elevate performance and international competitiveness; (2) skepticism over their authenticity and emotional ties to Indonesia; and (3) contested implications for local talent development. While naturalization is often portrayed as a pragmatic strategy, the media also frame it as a site of negotiation between globalization and local values. By mediating public perception, the media significantly influence how naturalized players are integrated into the symbolic boundaries of national identity. This study contributes to scholarship on media, sports, and nationalism in the Global South by showing how national identity is constructed through media discourses in the era of sports globalization.
Keywords: Media narratives, Naturalization in Football, National identity, Sports globalization, Indonesia
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ismail, Purwanto and Munsi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ahmad Ismail, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.