Sports media can, by framing a national team's character, stereotype the identity of a whole population. Since the early 20th century, football has been an uncontested arena for nationalistic expressions. However, nationalistic feelings get real consequences, and in relation to football there has been several examples of wars started or prevented because of the game.  The present study used a number of questions and answered them in order to fulfil its purpose: to highlight mediated expressions of Swedish nationalism and national stereotypes in Swedish sports media by scrutinizing its framing of Sweden and ‘Swedishness’ related to opposition countries during the Football World Cup in 2018. The questions used were specifically how Sweden and ‘Swedishness’ were framed, how the characters of Sweden’s respective opposition countries were framed and finally how the media expressed Swedish nationalism. A combination of framing theory and Stuart Hall’s representation theory was chosen as theoretical ground to summarize the media’s framing of the respective nationalities. Additionally, Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities and Michael Billig’s banal nationalism let the analysis of the frames regarding Sweden be deepened. The framing analysis was carried out on twelve chronicles published by Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen during the tournament. The analysis showed that Swedish identity and ’Swedishness’ were framed as showing good morale, specifically when it came to collectivism, unselfish and hard work and anti-racism. Ultimately, Sweden was stereotypically framed as a morally likeable and collective realm in an individualistic world. Swedish nationalistic expressions in sports media can be researched more. The result of this study offers awareness in thinking of our own attitude towards nationalism, and stereotypes of other nations, in relation to sports.

I den här C-uppsatsen undersöks hur fotbollsspelarna Zlatan Ibrahimovic och Cristiano Ronaldo framställs i olika länders medier, i synnerhet tidningar och webbsajter. Till vår hjälp har vi använt oss av teorier om nationella stereotyper, National Sporting Heroes, idrottsstjärnor inom sportjournalistiken samt teorin om nyhetsvärdering och medielogik. Vi har gjort kvalitativa textanalyser av tidnings- och internetartiklar från sju olika länder och gjort en djupintervju med Johanna Frändén, journalist på Sportbladet och Sveriges Television. Resultatet visar att det kan finnas tydliga skillnader på hur en person eller händelse gestaltas i olika länder. Avgörande faktorer kan vara att en tidning tydligt stöttar ett landslag eller en klubb eller använder sig av nationella stereotyper kring motståndare och sig själva. / In this C-essay examines how football players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo depicts in different countries media, especially newspapers and web sites. To our help we have used the theories of national stereotypes, the National Sporting Heroes, sporting stars in sports journalism and the theory of news values ​​and media logic. We have made qualitative textual analysis of newspaper and internet articles from seven different countries and made a depth interview with Johanna Frändén, journalist Sportbladet and Swedish Television. The results show that there may be a distinct differences in how a person or event depicted in different countries. Essential factors may be that a newspaper clearly support a national team or a club or uses the national stereotypes surrounding opponents and themselves.