Goal dreams: conflicting development imaginaries in Ghanaian football academies

Abstract

Focusing on three Ghanaian football academies, this article examines the role that dreams and aspirations play in shaping development schemes and in determining their impact. Football ignites the hopes and imaginations of entrepreneurs, aspiring players, their parents and supporters, and these aspirations serve as a blueprint for action both among founders and participants of academies. Imagined futures give birth to development initiatives, attracting participants, and providing them with opportunities to articulate their own aspirations. The following examination argues that it is vital for researchers and practitioners to understand how a variety of imagined futures comes into play in development schemes, as the conflicts and negotiations between divergent imaginaries can explain why individuals engage with development, how schemes evolve and how they leave their mark upon communities.

Forever young: Institution-based waithood among youth in Ghana and South Africa

“…Academy owners, on their part, have also used the rhetoric of development to attract participants in order to acquire financial and social capital for themselves and the surrounding communities. Such rhetoric, in turn, further fuels the "goal dreams" of the youths (Dubinsky and Schler, 2019), who believe that excelling on the pitch would open doors for social mobility for them and their relatives.…”

Why are East African Players Absent in European Football? Localizing African Football Migration Along Structural Constraints, Colonial Legacies and Voluntary Immobility

“…While mushrooming football academies all over West Africa, ranging from professional enterprises to improvised facilities, have institutionalized talent development for international markets, the production of players for sale seems to be the main motive for many (Darby et al, 2007). However, beside "sport only" approaches, many academies offer education for players or promote communal social development as their primary goal (Dubinsky & Schler, 2019). Nevertheless, even in the latter cases, the overall aim of the participating talents is to succeed as footballers.…”

“…With our study, we aim at contributing to empirically and conceptually localize a phenomenon broadly labeled as “African football migration.” We do so by highlighting regional differences that reflect the continent’s diversity. Knowledge about football migration from Africa, from young players’ imagination of international mobility to the experiences of migration and post-career trajectories, merely stems from studies in and on the western part of the continent (Agergaard & Ungruhe, 2016; Darby, 2010, 2012; Dubinsky & Schler, 2019; Esson, 2013, 2015; Ungruhe, 2014). This regional focus has identified widespread aspired and realized out-migration of footballers to become successful players in Europe.…”

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Soccer: Web of Science Bibliometric Analysis

“…In general, this cluster aggregates papers related to the social function of sport, with football as a central element of contributions to social development. Even so, we can observe two approaches: on the one hand, we find studies that analyse football as a means of educating and developing people [52][53][54][55] through entrepreneurs who developed educational initiatives in the form of schools or academies [56,57]. Innovative football-based programmes can promote ethical and civic values while improving the health and well-being of participants [54,[58][59][60].…”

“…On the other hand, in the context of the development of underdeveloped societies, is the creation of academies and organisations such as the Mandela Soccer Academy, aspiring the imaginations and hopes of entrepreneurs and promoting the development of young people in the country [57]. The above authors, included in our search collection, analyse the social and developmental role of innovative football academies in underdeveloped countries such as Ghana.…”