Abstract: The paper examines the ways in which Portuguese migrants and luso-descendents connect to their "country of origin". How do they re-construct or re-invent elements of their "culture of origin", however defined or narrated, in different diasporic settings? The narrative and consumption of Portuguese Football is one of the most visible elements of popular and everyday-life culture among Portuguese emigrants and their offspring in diasporic settings. "Portuguese places" which serve as meetings points abroad, such as bars, restaurants and associations are decorated with the icons of Portuguese Football, and are most frequented at the occasion of internationally aired matches of Portuguese teams or the national squad. Together with active football, organised by Portuguese at amateur level as a recreational and leisure activity, football identification, fandom and consumption (also via new information and communication technologies) provide a connection among globally dispersed Portuguese and to people and places left behind, a space for performances of national belonging and common leisure activities. It also serves as a tool for minority politics, adaptive and economic ends, and contributes to the construction of Portuguese ethnicity in migratory contexts. The paper provides insights into the findings of the international research project Diasbola which analysed the role of football among Portuguese emigrants and luso-descendents in eight diasporic settings, at referring to the case studies conducted in rural and urban locales in Germany, in Geneva, Maputo, London, Paris, New England and three Canadian cities, as well as a small quantitative survey realized during the mega-event EURO 2008. Does the strong interest and dedication to Portuguese football imply an act of deliberate boundary marking that signals limitations in the extent to which these communities seek incorporation into the new setting, carrying out, instead, an act of desired segregation (Figueroa 2003, Dyck 2007)? Deriving from ethnographic material, results confirm the importance of football in shaping leisure and identity constructions in Portuguese diaspora and highlight important particularities: While football in its social formation and its possible functions are shaped by each particular diasporic context, it also provides dynamics which shape such contexts and conditions.

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