Abstract
ABSTRACT Literature on football in the Global South explains the popularity of the sport in relation to a devaluation of schooling. As schools no longer provide a route to successful adulthood in the neoliberal present, youth, ‘stuck’ in waithood, increasingly turn to football to find their way into the future. This article explores the relationships between football, schooling and the future in rural eastern Uganda and presents a different story. It argues that in eastern Uganda football and schooling reinforce each other’s popularity and their connection is harmonious rather than conflicting: football is used to perform a schooled identity; football is played to hold on to educational aspirations; and the sport provides schooled people with socio-political opportunities in the village. The article shows how youth out of school anticipate a future with more schooling through playing football.
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