Abstract des Autors

The commercial internationalization of professional ice hockey is shaped by tensions of (re)routing and (up)rooting since it involves (i) crossing geographic, ethnic, and linguistic boundaries to capitalize on foreign talent, while (ii) maintaining place-based logics to foster allegiance from local fans and develop local talent, and (iii) confronting the universalizing and often non-commercial ideals of sport. By examining media data in Finland and Canada, this article explores how three key moments of routing and rooting in the careers of two foreign-born athletes generate different discourses of professionalization that work to mitigate potential tensions. Finland’s Saku Koivu, with the Montréal Canadiens, and Québec’s Éric Perrin, with JYP Jyväskylä, both captained teams in globalizing hockey markets. Despite different scales and resources, both markets appear to operate under similar mediatized discourses of professionalization, valuing the metaphors of neoliberal rationalities about will (individual autonomy and desire), skill (performance and competition), and profit (entrepreneurialism).