Translating Tweets in the Soccer Industry: Identity Management and Visibility in a Global Game

Abstract

Migration has created exceptionally diverse communities in many professional soccer leagues. These diverse communities then interact with global audiences, yet the key challenge of communication across languages has not previously been the focus of academic attention. This study investigated Twitter translation practice in this highly commercial industry, drawing from questionnaire and interview data from the perspective of translation providers, figures in the soccer industry, and migrant player and club tweets. The findings reveal tensions between global and local identities as soccer players, soccer clubs, and governing organizations manage identity performance and economic potential across language barriers on social media. These tensions foster debate about cross-language communication on social media in the soccer industry and extend existing work on social media and translation, in particular with regard to professional practice, fluency, and the visibility of translation and translators in this unusual professional setting.