El juego de la vida, o cómo Televisa imaginó la pasión femenina por el futbol mexicano

Abstract:This article explores how El juego de la vida, a 165-episode telenovela broadcast by Televisa from November 12, 2001, to June 28, 2002, contributes to expand existing soccer narratives in Mexico by reorganizing the conventions of the genre to incorporate an atypical theme: women's soccer. Despite the fact that this telenovela breaks the gender hegemony that male-centered Mexican soccer enjoyed until the beginning of the twenty-first century, El juego de la vida falls short of being a feminist project. The article concludes that Televisa did not launch El juego de la vida for political reasons but as a marketing strategy to target the untapped market of young women and draw them into the passionate realm of futbol.