diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4d5c883a98e5..a5ef6818157a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -616,6 +616,11 @@ CFLAGS_GCOV	:= -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage \
 	$(call cc-disable-warning,maybe-uninitialized,)
 export CFLAGS_GCOV
 
+# The arch Makefiles can override CC_FLAGS_FTRACE. We may also append it later.
+ifdef CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER
+  CC_FLAGS_FTRACE := -pg
+endif
+
 # The arch Makefile can set ARCH_{CPP,A,C}FLAGS to override the default
 # values of the respective KBUILD_* variables
 ARCH_CPPFLAGS :=
@@ -755,9 +760,6 @@ KBUILD_CFLAGS 	+= $(call cc-option, -femit-struct-debug-baseonly) \
 endif
 
 ifdef CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER
-ifndef CC_FLAGS_FTRACE
-CC_FLAGS_FTRACE := -pg
-endif
 ifdef CONFIG_FTRACE_MCOUNT_RECORD
   # gcc 5 supports generating the mcount tables directly
   ifeq ($(call cc-option-yn,-mrecord-mcount),y)