‘Holding their own’: Australian football, British culture and globalization

This study looks historically at the Australian presence in English football culture. In essence, it describes a transition from Aussie‐footballer‐as‐rarity to the contemporary situation in which Australians line up as simply one unremarkable nationality among the many represented in British football’s contingent of migrant workers. To illustrate this transition there is a discussion of the case study of Craig Johnston, who, by definition, was an extraordinary presence in the English First Division between 1978 and 1988. The study then analyses the representation of Australian football in the British sports press and of the British‐ (and Europe‐ ) based ‘Socceroos’ in the Australian media. These representations are considered alongside the testimony of Aaron Downes, who, at the time of writing, captains Chesterfield in the English Coca Cola Football League Two representing one of hundreds of non‐elite migrant Australian football workers contracted to clubs across Europe.