The football players They are no longer only the center of the news, now they are the issuer. They no longer depend on the journalist who talks about their possible transfers, or on the medium that confirms them, now they, used to being the figures on the field, are the figures of their own information, after all they have it first hand, which is theirs, and they inserted themselves with skill – like a dribble – in the era of social networks and live broadcast platforms. Now they launch the self-scoop, promote the expectation of a possible signing, tip the scales of the negotiations, and deny, and confront: they became the messenger who carries his own letter.
That Juan Fernando Quintero going to Junior de Barranquilla was news before being the news. The journalists had a clue –because the trade survives in any case– and they went after her. Then there was an information ‘war’ between the “confirmed, it does reach Junior”, or the “confirmed, it no longer reaches Junior”, because that is how information moves from the moment it is information. But the striking thing about this fluctuation of versions was the prominence that the footballer assumed.
Quintero, skillful as on the field, led his own news. He used Twitter like it was his trusty ball, moving it this way and that. He generated his own campaign of expectation, expressed his desire to reach Junior, leaned the conversation – and perhaps the negotiation – towards that end, and when everything fell apart, he regretted it, and when everything resurfaced, he did not hesitate to celebrate it. Quintero is an example of how soccer players control the information that is generated about them: information that avoids intermediaries, that is, the historical role of journalism.
Camilo Garcia, a digital strategist who advises Falcao García on communication issues, knows this new situation in detail. “8 years ago, being massive was mediated by the media, that was broken, in that period of time players have realized that there is no need to go through the media to reach mass audiences. They have realized the powers that are behind the management of their networks or transmissions on Twitch, for example in a negotiation, not only in the case of Juanfer, that a trill generated tension and pressure, ”he says.
Before, footballers spoke little in networks, they spoke little in general, especially the stars, but now there is no silence, they do not bite their tongues, if they want to say that the journalist is misinformed, they say so. If they want to say which team they want to go to, they say so. The model changed.
“Within modernity, social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok they win the game over the information sciences, giving the athlete an effective tool to socialize, and although it carries out a massive dissemination in a virtual and non-personal way, it also moves away from the context of the sporting spectacle, not being the best way to interact with the public in the entertainment industry”, says Juan Carlos Vásquez, an international businessman with 29 years of experience in the niche market and who at one time had Freddy Rincón and Albeiro Usuriaga.
The footballer is the message
Footballers are no longer silent. Quintero confronted one and the other journalist, not as someone looking for a fight, but as someone who wants to establish who the message is. When journalist Samuel Vargas, from Directv and Win, criticized Quintero for his handling of his transfer process, the soccer player replied: “Next time I’ll ask you what I have to do, okay?” Then it was the renowned journalist Carlos Antonio Vélez who criticized him, and Quintero responded. “Doctor, no one has damaged my image…”.
And when the news was not news yet, it was another footballer, Carlos Bacca, the one who threw the goat before everyone, because that’s what the goats are for. The footballers were the owners of the information and the message, cutting the relationship between the athlete and the journalist.
And although it seems that this model is something new, it is not so much. “Although the transfer of Quintero surprised by its development in social networks -possibly planned from the beginning-, in which the player, his new teammate Carlos Bacca and the Junior club participated, in reality it is not something completely new in football and sports in general. The Internet and in particular social networks have promoted disintermediation in many fields, including public information. Thus, a president can announce appointments and measures on Twitter rather than in a statement addressed to the media or a press conference; a footballer can give clues, through his interactions with other players, of which club he is approaching. In other sports it is something increasingly common. The media, who already know that they are not going to talk to them about this, actively monitor the networks of athletes to have the scoop or speculate about their present and future,” he says. Mauricio Jaramillo Marín, director of Impacto TIC.
Others were the times when the footballers called a press conference to maintain the dialogue with the media, and for the press to spread the message. Now the players interact with each other, as in a simulation of an interview that does not become an interview, although sometimes it leaves news.
“Interpersonal relationships, contact with the media and journalists, as well as the public that wants to have the experiences, the immediate and genuine reactions of the footballer to the questions asked by a sports journalism professional and that are finally subjected to a concept one-sided who embody a virtual subject on social networks from the privacy and comfort of their home, is simply a real disappointment for the public. It is known that many athletes in this new trend of cyberculture turn to their advisers or agencies to manage and fill social networks with content, taking into account that many of the concepts and their publications do not exactly have their analysis and points of view. .. Many chose to avoid the immediacy and emotion of an interview or press conference”, adds Vásquez.
Information Owners
This dynamic of the message without an intermediary has already been applied James Rodriguez during his broadcasts on Twitch, in which he did not only give his own news. A specific case was when James, along with Camilo Zúñiga and Teo Gutiérrezspoke live on Instagram about his absence in the 2021 Copa América, with phrases like “they disrespected me”, which unleashed a storm.
They themselves create the climate of speculation, such as when they decide to follow the account of a team, as if they wanted to give clues, or false clues. Some simply express themselves in that universe with irony or fun, without a filter, like when Juan Guillermo Cuadrado hinted that he wanted to go to Junior, during a live performance by Carlos Bacca after Quintero’s arrival.
For their part, the clubs avoid until fatigue that the journalist finds out the information, and before it leaks, they launch it into their networks. The dialogue, once again, is direct between the club and the fans.
“In common, all the cases would have been impossible without social media and the internet. And all the cases show that athletes – and almost all public figures – prefer to communicate directly with their audiences rather than through intermediaries. These cases also reveal that the role of the media and journalists has ceased to be relevant for this kind of scoop (although some journalists with very good sources have adapted to this playing field and have become a source of information in the networks themselves)”, adds Jaramillo.
The rise of false news is a determining factor that has influenced this position of footballers. This is what the strategist Camilo García believes: “The amount of wrong news to gain clicks generated a divorce between athletes and sectors of the media. Some players are not on their networks all the time, they come home from training, sleep and look at Twitter and see news that sometimes borders on the ridiculous. Fake news discredits the professional press and it’s a dangerous mix because the footballer says, ‘why do I give interviews if they’re going to misunderstand me, that’s why I have 20 million followers, I speak directly’”.
And more and more people prefer this direct dialogue. During the Qatar World Cup the DT of Spain, Luis Enriquehe took full advantage of the networks, which he turned into his information channel.
Ibai Plainswho is a streamer, a youtuber with more than 11 million followers on Twitch, became the official channel for his soccer friends to talk about everything, including their private lives.
And thus this divorce between the player and the press deepens. The footballer, the epicenter of the news, is now also the channel, the message and the messenger.
PAUL ROMERO
Editor of EL TIEMPO
@PabloRoimeroET
JOSE ORLANDO ASCENCI
sports deputy editor
@Josasc
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