Camus football essay

Camus leaned towards anarchism, a tendency that intensified in the 1950s, when he came to believe that the Soviet model was morally bankrupt. Camus was firmly against any kind of exploitation, authority and property, bosses, the State and centralization.

Any football ambitions disappeared when he contracted tuberculosis at the age of 17. Camus drew parallels among football, human existence, morality, and personal identity. For him, the simplistic morality of football contradicted the complicated morality imposed by authorities such as the state and Church.

Lots of people have written to the Albert Camus Society regarding Camus and his thoughts on football. Here is a copy of an email on the subject we sent out to a recent enquirer. Camus was once asked by his friend Charles Poncet which he preferred, football or the theatre – Camus is said to have replied ‘Football, without hesitation.’

As one of the forefathers of existentialism, Camus focused most of his philosophy around existential questions. The absurdity of life and its inevitable ending (death) is highlighted in the very famous opening of the novel The Stranger (1942): "Today mother died.