Yacov Zohn

Growing up Soccer was my consuming passion. Off the field it found its way into all my academic essays, no matter for what class. I wrote about its history, economics, and even about its place in literary fiction. At university, I concentrated on international studies and history while continuing to compete on the pitch at Nazareth College, MOSGU, the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia and through various clubs. Now, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I hope to integrate my passion for soccer, history, and international studies in my study of the Soviet national soccer team for my history PhD.  

My dissertation traces the history of the national Soviet soccer team from its official recognition by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in 1946 to its tortuous disintegration in the early 1990s. My aim is to elucidate the interplay of local, national, and supranational allegiances within the Soviet team in order to examine the politics of representation in the Soviet Union. Thus, I will illuminate how the narrative of Soviet sports history intersects with the kaleidoscope of competing narratives from nation-states and global sport governing institutions to form a complex mosaic of transnational sports history.