Soccer souvenirs help Adam Beissel stay connected to SLAM students
Unique memorabilia combines professor’s personal and professional interests
Soccer souvenirs help Adam Beissel stay connected to SLAM students
If every place and space tells a story, then Adam Beissel’s office in the department of Sport Leadership and Management (SLAM) is more eloquent than most.
Covering the walls are an impressive and colorful array of soccer scarfs, jerseys, and unique works of art. Most carry the namesake of the Liverpool Football Club, his favorite club, and one of the most storied and successful teams in the world.
“When I'm meeting with a prospective student that wants to come to Miami, they always ask the obvious: So you're a soccer fan?” the associate SLAM professor said. “And I'm like,What was the giveaway?”
However, to call Beissel just a fan is an understatement. It also underplays both the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of his collection.
As someone who explores the geopolitical economy of global sport, sport stadiums and urban development, as well as the contextualized fanbases that create different cultural and social identities for clubs around the world, it’s also a direct extension of his work on the global politics of international sport.
Beissel is also co-editor of the new book, The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Politics, Representation, and Management, which has been called “a must-read” for anyone interested in the complexities and transformative potential of contemporary sport.
“It naturally flows into what I do,” he said. “It's what I teach about. I take students on study abroad trips to study soccer. It's what I research. The best hobbies are the ones that combine your personal and professional interests, and this is me.”
But beyond fandom. Even beyond research. It’s also become a way for Beissel to connect and to stay connected to students.
While traversing across Europe, many follow his lead by collecting their own unique soccer scarfs, which are often sold by local street-side vendors outside stadiums. Others continue to send him mementos of their own travels long after they’ve left Miami.
“A lot of our graduates are getting jobs with professional soccer teams, and so they've given me some scarves of the teams they now work for,” Beissel said. “And when I look at the Minnesota United scarf up there, I also think about my student. And it reminds me of those people and of the places they've been in their lives.”
