Between Offside and Órsai: Uruguayan Soccer, a (Trans)National Sport

This chapter discusses the role of soccer in raising Uruguay's international profile, as well as the transnational connections that played a key role in the development of soccer as a national sport during the first three decades of the twentieth century. First, the chapter examines the regional exchanges between Uruguay and Argentina that conditioned the emergence of soccer as a massive sport and the narrative of a “criollo” style. Then, it delves into the participation of the Uruguayan national team at the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games, key moments in the reinforcement of a nationalist narrative built around soccer. Finally, it addresses the case of José Leandro Andrade (1901–1957), the first Black star of global soccer, in relation to the racial tensions that arose from the overlapping of the national and the transnational.