Drawing on four sub-studies, the thesis adopts a predominantly qualitative approach to examine how football talent is understood and communicated in both media representations and high-performance youth environments. Empirical material includes German and Swedish media coverage, as well as ethnographic data from elite youth academies in one German Bundesliga club and one Swedish Allsvenskan club. The first two studies engage with both national contexts, analyzing how talent discourses are shaped within and across Germany and Sweden. The latter two studies focus solely on the German case, offering a more in-depth investigation of the organizational and technological dimensions of talent development. Theoretically, the first two papers presented in this dissertation are informed by Laclau and Mouffe`s approach to discourse theory, offering an underutilized yet powerful lens for examining the contingent and political nature of meaning-making in sport. In addition, the third paper draws on Karl Weick`s sensemaking framework to explore how football organizations construct and negotiate definitions of talent in interaction with one another. The final article takes an inductive approach to investigate how emerging technologies are reshaping current understandings and practices of identifying and managing talent. The findings emphasize that talent is an empty signifier that is mobilized to serve different strategic aims, often in ways that obscure the contingencies behind its construction. As such, the dissertation underscores the need for a critical engagement with how talent is defined and operationalized in football. It highlights the socio-cultural, technological, and institutional forces that shape talent discourses and calls for greater reflexivity in both academic and applied discussions of talent in sport.
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