Postmodern footballers and their ‘second skin’: emotional narratives ranging from solidarity to intimacy Manuel González-Ramallal*, José L. Castilla and Aníbal Mesa Sociology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain This article underlines some key traits in the make-up of postmodern footballers. Specifically, we discuss the changes in celebrating goals as sporting events in recent years. We contribute a new perspective on the birth of the postmodern ‘me-event’ compared with the ‘goal-event’ typical of modern times. To support our contribution empirically, we use two methodological dimensions: the dis- course analysis of international football legislation and photographic and video archive to illustrate the diversity of phenomena with hermeneutic sampling crite- ria. The differences between the modern and postmodern way of celebrating a goal, individually and/or collectively, highlight a process of social change in which the individual way of celebrating advances rapidly in a society where there is ever greater media coverage and commercialism. Palestine Kanouté in the Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium Happy Birthday Mom Messi in Camp Nou Introduction The relationship between local and global in postmodern football is one in which there is clear tension between places and globalization. 1 Local continues to ferment the identity and shape legends, circumscribed by a specific territorial frame. How- ever, greater media coverage and reconfiguring football as an object of consumption on an international level has led to a cultural and territorial jump from local to national, and to international, which has been widely described in the literature on this subject. 2,3,4 This dialectic relationship is understandable from the perspective of a double need from opposing sides of a complex relationship. On one hand, the local context requires iconic events and legends within its borders and beyond (singularity and legends are projected within an area and beyond it). On the other, the internationalization of post-national football and the tendency to consider a non-place for its aseptic ‘fair play’ require organic growth and highly mediated legends for the game (globalization also generates brands and cultural markets turn- ing international aspects back into local ones). Between the global purity of the rules (supposedly de-ethnicization) and the ethnicity demanded by the flesh and bone of football passion, the dialectic debate of ‘glocal’ football is taking place. *Corresponding author. Email: mramal@ull.es © 2014 Taylor & Francis Soccer & Society , 2015 Vol. 16, No. 4, 437–452, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2014.882827