Abstract

This paper argues that for a Ghanaian football migrant to become successful, it is central to control and manage time. The Ghanaian footballers are flexible workers on the move in an economic system that builds on investments, transfers and fast cash revenues. Their bodies are their work tools and it is of essence that they remain healthy and youthful. Therefore, the way time is managed has consequences for the footballers both in the short and long run. Drawing on ethnographic work in Ghana and Sweden, the paper looks at preparations for the migration journey, arrival and initial acclimatization through a temporal perspective. The paper identifies two overarching, intersecting and sometimes clashing, temporalities that are central to the football migration project. These are “institutional time” and “athletic time”. It specifically considers a number of temporal institutional and athletic borders that are imposed on the footballers. The paper discusses how the footballers and the people that work with them try to navigate these borders in order to arrive, and perform, just in time. It also looks at what happens when things do not go according to plan. Time is a scarce resource and the stakes involved are high.

Bio

Emy Lindberg is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University. Her research focuses on football migration between Ghana and Sweden. She has undertaken fieldwork in both Ghana and Sweden, following and tracking the employment trajectories of Ghanaian footballers. In addition, she has mapped the transnational, formal and informal networks that surround the players in order to understand the broader dynamics at play and the impact of his/her journey.