This doctorate thesis in Human geography deals with the international trade and migration of African football players towards and within Europe through a relational theoretical framework. Through the case study of African footballers, the goal is to gain a better understanding of several ongoing mechanisms occurring in the context of the global economy, such as the new international division of labour, the emergence of global production networks and the segmentation of labour markets. The thesis pleads for taking into account the social embeddedness of the economic action and of social networks as fundamental analytical unity to understand the process of globalization.
