The contribution of the International Relations of Costa Rica to the reflection on soccer

a recently assumed challenge

Abstract

This work establishes the production route of the knowledge structures of the National and Costa Rican universities in relation to soccer, to interpret the recent incorporation of Costa Rican international affairs in the debate. The final graduation papers on the subject reported in the systems of the Library Catalog of both institutions are organized and classified according to the contributions of Rovira and Urbina Gaitán, until 2008 and 2010 respectively. Subsequently, the productions from 2011 to 2019 of both houses of studies are organized. At the University of Costa Rica, the discussion began at the Faculty of Law and then in Psychology and Collective Communication. In the National University it was more institutionalized and technical linked to the School of Human Movement Sciences and with a weak participation of the Social Sciences. From 1965 to 2010, International Affairs did not directly address the issue of sport in general, much less soccer specifically It is concluded that the production of knowledge on the subject has been asystematic and disconnected from each other, which has generated gaps that make it difficult to use the area as a country positioning mechanism in an agenda of geopolitical interests using diplomacy and sports cooperation mechanisms such as A key element of its foreign policy. The great absentee in all this thematization process has been International Affairs, however, the contribution of the academic Soto Acosta will emerge to settle this debt and set a course full of thematic challenges and potential bets that this area may assume in the immediate future