The translator as a number 10: Considering how cultural translation takes place in German and English football reporting in the era of globalisation

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According to the British government (Cabinet Office, 2015), sport 'can have a meaningful [...] effect on improving people's lives', a sentiment with worldwide application. Football has the largest global viewership and participation numbers (Shvili, 2020), and therefore biggest cultural presence. Professional clubs form an important part of communities on a local level, but extensive changes in television and journalism in recent years also mean audiences have access to football from many countries. These changes in access have coincided with globalisation within sport, with players and managers from different countries plying their trade in European leagues in unprecedented numbers, and as football is a social meeting point, it constitutes a space where cultural transfer invariably takes place.In such a context, as with international journalism, correspondents commenting on the source culture play an important role in how football as a cultural product is consumed, and while football is often represented as a unifying element of culture (Krulek, 2019), there are still fundamental differences between its position in societies, and surrounding culture; these differences mean that a certain level of cultural mediation on the part of a correspondent is required. Sports correspondents must balance drawing on familiar themes to keep consumers accustomed to a certain cultural product engaged, while also presenting a clear, authentic representation of a given source culture's footballing output. Two of the most prominent domestic leagues internationally are the English Premier League, and the German Bundesliga, with both broadcasting live games to many countries (premierleague.com, 2019, bundesliga.com, 2019). Professional clubs in both countries are seen as representatives of their areas, with histories of tens of thousands attending matches, and organic football subcultures, each with distinct linguistic and cultural dimensions, have consequently developed within England and Germany. as well as specific regions. Globalisation, on the other hand, particularly with the revenue potential it affords, increasingly sees leagues and broadcasters try to reach the widest audience possible and make their product culturally accessible. This places cultural mediators under often contrasting cultural influences when handling football content in different countries. By examining the process of cultural translation within this context of a highly globalised sport in German and English, more can be learned about cultural flows and the professional outlook and specific roles of cultural mediators.