Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the content of the sport-themed writings of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (1960-2003); to establish the main areas of sport, institutions, people, events, issues and scholarly disciplines addressed by this author; and to evaluate their relevancy for the physical activity and sport sciences. Despite his extensive works on sport, only some of the academic studies devoted to this author refer to their content, although we find references to his thinking in sport publications. The content of Montalbán’s sport-themed works is clarified by a categorical thematic analysis, that is, a calculation of the frequency with which certain predefined categories appear. The results show that the most important thematic categories are Spanish football; Futbol Club Barcelona; footballers and fans; writing without sport themes and football matches; the relationship between politics and sport in Spain; and the political sociology of sport. Likewise, this study also reveals the importance of the Olympics, especially the 1992 Barcelona Olympics; the Spanish government and Real Madrid; sport and political leaders and biographical aspects; sport phenomena other than competition; historical memory and the role of the media; and the anthropology of sport in Montalbán’s sport-themed writings.