Global Networks 7, 2 (2007) 230–247. ISSN 1470–2266. © 2007 The Author(s) Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd & Global Networks Partnership 230 The global footballer and the local war-zone: George Weah and transnational networks in Liberia, West Africa GARY ARMSTRONG School of Sport and Education, Brunel University, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK. gary.armstrong@brunel.ac.uk Abstract Elite sport is the vehicle for global interactions via both its shared practices and the relations engendered by its governing bodies and its global tournaments. This capability has attracted the attentions of those seeking both nation-building and reconciliation in war-damaged nations. The narrative that follows has global impli- cations, telling as it does the story of George Weah, a Liberian-born footballer who became a humanitarian ambassador, and later aspired to become his country’s president. Weah’s story informs debates on globalization, illustrating the transnational career of a man who developed a keen understanding of institutional politics and patronage and who allowed himself to be courted by various global figures. These scenarios took place in Liberia, a war-devastated African nation. This tale thus provides for reflection on how sport can encourage and undermine practises of nationhood. As a former World Footballer of the Year, Weah was a Liberian success story and well aware of his populist appeal. However, the issue of who a people are and who is to be their national political representative has proven to be a very fraught issue in the Liberian context. Whether global sporting networks have made the world smaller and the people more knowing in the Liberian context is an issue this article raises in considering its most famous citizen. Keywords FOOTBALL, AFRICA, FIFA, TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS, SPORTING HERO, GEORGE WEAH Sport has been integral to global processes since the nineteenth century. Games have been disseminated and imitated for over 150 years for their intrinsic worth, alongside their extrinsic – and parallel – globalizing forces based in commerce and com- munications (Allison 1986, 2002; Aris 1990; Budd and Levermore 2004; Crawford 2004; Guttmann 1994; Maguire 1994, 2005). Sporting practices have facilitated a variety of identities – real, imagined and submerged – and inculcated a variety of disciplines based on the requirements made both on the individual body and collectively via team efforts (Allison 2002; Bale and Maguire 1994).