Donavan, predictably, was on the receiving end of immediate backlash from fans and former national team players alike -- most notably Carlos Bocanegera and Herculez Gomez.
Behind the social media fiasco--which takes on additional meaning given our socio-political moment--is something worth talking about, though.This is an incredibly terrible take. Questioning ones loyalties to culture and/or heritage because HE questioned YOU for taking marketing dollars to “root” for your SPORTING RIVAL?— herculez gomez (@herculezg) June 16, 2018
You can hate El Tri- this doesn’t mean you have anything against Mexicans. ✊🏼 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 https://t.co/xF9JCI1qBC
There's a real tension and, frankly, ignorance around the multicultural identity of the men's national team. Wells Fargo's ad is based in the assumption that there's significant overlap between soccer fans living in the United States, but of Mexican citizenship or descent.
As a brand, Wells Fargo clearly preferred to build an ad campaign around an American team in the World Cup but weren't willing to be sidelined during the month long tournament once the USMNT failed to qualify.
The strategy was basically to put the core elements of their ideal campaign into a blender. What came out was the most iconic player in American history pimping a corporate sponsorship by endorsing America's biggest soccer rival. (Of course it's even more layered than that given Donavan's exit from the national team.)
As dumb as all this sounds, it's basically the same approach major stake holders--including U.S. Soccer--have taken over the last two-plus decades in an attempt to "grow the game" in America, and the results have been similar.
Paying lip-service to the "emerging Latino market" has landed America's soccer gatekeepers in trouble before.
Perhaps the most obvious example is the Chivas U.S.A debacle, but there are others more specific to the national team. Just look to the youth development foibles of the late. (I wrote about the Jonathan Gonzales situation on this blog.) Or at the tension around Klinsmann preferencing German-American players.
These are the direct result of cultural incompetency -- a misunderstanding of how complex the mixture of sport, culture and identity are.
My point tonight isn't to write in-depth about each and every instance of cultural incompetency, nor is it even to delve into solutions. It's simply to say: these aren't just gaffes to paper over. This is difficult stuff that should occupy both America's soccer intelligentsia and it's executives.
