In an age where algorithmic, data-driven rationality increasingly shapes technological decision-making with high precision, the persistence of superstitious practices among professional football players and their supporters may seem paradoxical. Yet these behaviors are not simply remnants of a pre-rational past or tools for managing anxiety. Rather, they can be understood as expressions of a distinct mode of cultural cognition—what Ernst Cassirer terms “mythical consciousness,” formed not through empirical causality but through emotion and analogy.

Within this perspective, practices such as pre-match rituals, observance of taboos, and the use of lucky objects can be interpreted as symbolic performances tied to notions of sacred time, space, and agency. Drawing on Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms and supported by selected examples from contemporary football, this study argues that such practices reflect a coherent structure of mythical perception that coexists with, rather than opposes, scientific rationality.

Accordingly, myth continues to provide meaning to human action even in technologically advanced domains. The article concludes that myth and science function as parallel symbolic systems: science focuses on explanation and prediction, while myth integrates and transforms experience within a unified field of meaning.