ABSTRACT This article examines the migration of Irish-born soccer players to the United States of America to take up soccer scholarships in the late twentieth century. It will show that while Irish athletes had been moving to the universities there to undertake athletic scholarships since the late 1940s, it was not until the late 1960s that soccer players began to be recruited. Irish-American cultural connections often facilitated players’ movement, which has generally been motivated by the lack of opportunities to combine soccer training and education within the Irish higher education system, and the low chances of developing a full-time professional career in soccer in Britain or Ireland. It discusses a number of these players’ soccer careers prior to migration and, in combining oral testimony with newspaper reports, assesses the reasons why they decided to do so. It highlights that while courses were in place in Dublin to facilitate US soccer scholarship entry by the 1990s, players also continued to be recruited informally and some contacted other players and utilised networks in the USA to gain the attention of US coaches.

中文翻译：

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1969-2000 年为获得美国足球奖学金而移民的爱尔兰出生的球员

摘要 本文考察了 20 世纪后期出生于爱尔兰的足球运动员为了获得足球奖学金而移民到美国的情况。这将表明，虽然爱尔兰运动员自 1940 年代后期以来一直前往那里的大学接受体育奖学金，但直到 1960 年代后期才开始招募足球运动员。爱尔兰裔美国人的文化联系经常促进球员的运动，这通常是由于爱尔兰高等教育系统内缺乏将足球训练和教育相结合的机会，以及在英国发展全职足球职业的机会低或爱尔兰。它讨论了其中一些球员在移民之前的足球生涯，并将口头证词与报纸报道相结合，评估他们决定这样做的原因。它强调，虽然在 1990 年代都柏林开设了课程以促进美国足球奖学金的入学，但球员也继续被非正式招募，一些球员与其他球员联系并利用美国的网络来获得美国教练的关注。