Park of depressions. Football, neoliberalism and mental health

Abstract

This essay seeks to reflect on the meanings put into play on mental health in the field of sports. Based on the testimonies of football players who narrate their mental illnesses, we critically reflect on their sporting trajectories, and we make a genealogical approach to the approaches taken by sports clubs and international organisations involved in the practice. In this way, we rethink the current debates in the field of mental health and the challenges of psychology applied to sports. We ask ourselves what kind of subjectivities are modulated by these proposals, framed in the context of neoliberal capitalism, which demands from football players as if they were merchandise, and creates in them the promise that success, recognition, and prestige are the only alternative to happiness in their professional practice and in the way of living sport. Finally, we investigate the forms of collective resistance to these circulating meanings.