Soccer in Out of Nowhere acts as a vehicle for integration, facilitating cross-cultural friendship and global understanding. The sport allows the students to transcend cultural differences, creating a shared platform that unites diverse groups and promotes interaction. On the field, barriers are temporarily lowered, and players are judged more by their skill and teamwork than their background or socioeconomic status. However, soccer also serves to highlight the social and cultural disparities among the characters. These disparities are evident in the difficulty the Somali players face in paying for equipment and uniforms, as well as in Tom’s inability to afford the cost of playing for the elite club United Maine. In soccer as in everything else, economic status affects access to opportunities. While soccer is a unifying force that helps to integrate the Somalian students, it also acts as a lens through which the nuances of social and economic disparities are examined. It represents both the potential of sports to bridge divides and the persistent societal challenges that these divides denote.

In the narrative, Maquoit High School, with its well-resourced sports program and wealthy student body, symbolizes socio-economic privilege. It stands in contrast to Tom’s less affluent school, Chamberlin.