They must have sat bewildered as the van drove them out of the city. The Johannesburg skyline petered to bush too quickly. For the six teenagers, and their football hopes, Ghana was a distant memory. The red dusty fields of Thohoyandou, in South Africa’s Limpopo province, a distant uncertainty.
They flew thousands of miles south from Accra on a false promise, at their parents’ expense, to become lost boys of the broken world of African football. They arrived in South Africa thinking they were on their way to the moneyed Premier League grounds of England. But they were not and the agent who promised them this has disappeared along with their parents’ money. The South African coach they’ve been dumped on is trying to find their parents back in Ghana in a bid to send them home. This is the ugly side of the beautiful game in Africa where the youth are being misled through a murky world.
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It was the weak word of agent Francis Nkrumah that took these youngsters far from home. They heard him on the radio calling for trials in the coastal town of Cape Coast, three hours west of Accra. Out of 50 footballers, only seven made the cut. Skinny and dark in complexion; 15-year-old Richard Sogbadzi-Eddo was one of them. The midfielder says that he merely glimpsed Nkrumah during the trials. Most of the communication between the agent and family was over the phone.
“He was very dark and tall but he only talked to my brother on the phone,” explains Sogbadzi-Eddo.
The footballers, between the ages of 13 and 18, were told they would get a trial in South Africa leading to another with a Premier League club in England. They arrived in Thohoyandou, a small town in northern South Africa, with little idea where they were or what they were supposed to be doing. Nkrumah made big promises, says 17-year-old David Lawson.
“He said it would be a better place to play football and in three months we’ll go to Europe and we’ll probably be rich.”
Each family paid Nkrumah a little under $2,000 for their son’s chance for a brighter future. For all, the money was hard to come by.
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“My mother is not a government worker, she’s a trader in the market. So she had to take a loan for the money,” says Sogbadzi-Eddo.
The family lost their father five years ago and his mother has been supporting him and his four brothers with meagre earnings. Nkrumah’s promised them a way out of poverty. Lawson’s mother, a headmistress, borrowed money from her church to pay for her son’s passage.
This is part of the growing trade in young footballers between Africa and Europe that often ends in broken families and shattered dreams. South Africa is becoming a way station within this strange and exploitative system, says Dan McDougall, an investigative journalist, who has covered what he calls the trafficking of West African players to Europe.
McDougall has met many young Ghanaians like Lawson and Sogbadzi-Eddo, lured from home and stranded in Europe. He believes that the nature of the industry encourages many to prey on promising young players from impoverished families in West Africa.
“This is an industry that stinks from top to bottom.”
Agents, like Nkrumah, often run informal football academies across West Africa with hopes of supplying the wealthy clubs of Europe with another Didier Drogba or Michael Essien. In Ghana, players as young as 10 are sent abroad in the hope of securing trials. Others take illegal routes to Europe huddled on boats in search of a better life. The journey is dangerous and often deadly. In 2009, the Nazar, a fishing vessel carrying hundreds of African migrants capsized off Tripoli, killing 300. Fifteen of its passengers were believed to be young players on their way to the pitches
of Europe.
Reaching the shores of Europe doesn’t guarantee a future.
“This is a deadly business, families are being extorted and most of the time these kids don’t have the ability to make it,” insists McDougall.
Unlike the Ghanaians in Limpopo who at least have a roof over their head, many football hopefuls who make it to Europe from West Africa are forced to survive in ghettos and back alleys. Bernard Bass, a young player from Equatorial Guinea, whom McDougall met, made his way to France from Ghana. Living in the Paris ghetto of Clichy-sous-Bois, he was threatened with the police by the club he hoped to try out for, Metz in eastern France, because they didn’t know who he was. He stayed on in France illegally, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s apartment.
Back in Thohoyandou, the youngsters from Ghana have landed on the doorstep of unwitting former English professional footballer, Bally Smart. The former midfielder for Norwich City, who returned to Polokwane – the city of his birth – to set up his dream football academy is now lumbered with six  youths abandoned in South Africa who were merely given his address.
“He didn’t know anything [about Nkrumah]. But he asked us to stay and take the time to learn football. He said everything would be fine,” Sogbadzi-Eddo recalls.
It isn’t fine. Smart is trying to contact their parents back in Ghana and is at a loss. The agent has disappeared and could not be reached by the boys or by FORBES AFRICA. The boy’s visas expire in less than a year and they are running out of time.
“It’s frustrating to have them here because I am footing all the costs. I am just trying to make sure that they’re OK,” says Smart, who has never met Nkrumah.
Despite grim realities in Europe, the Ghanaian boys in Thohoyandou are hopeful.
“In West Africa, there are no chances. It is difficult to make it,” says young Sogbadzi-Eddo, who still has his sights set on Europe. “I am still positive that it will happen.”
This is just one of the problems on Smart’s plate. His dusty pitch has become a microcosm of the problems and divisions in African football. His academy, Polokwane United – where the Ghanaian boys live, learn and play – is facing a five-year suspension allegedly imposed by the Limpopo arm of the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA) which regulates the sport’s academies in the province. The academy has been barred from all competition. Smart insists that the suspension has no basis and that it was delivered unofficially. In early September, he filed an official complaint. FORBES AFRICA obtained a copy.
“It is clear that our strong teams and style of play is a thorn to the soccer politics in the district (Vhembe) and as a result our school has been targeted to be sabotaged (sic) and unfairly sidelined in an unscrupulous and corrupt manner,” Smart wrote in his complaint.
SASFA were unavailable for comment.
The suspension was a kick in the guts for all at Polokwane United – South Africans and Ghanaians alike.
Veteran football journalist, Mark Gleeson, believes that this is endemic in South African football.
“South Africa is notoriously bad for not promoting young football players,” he says.
“We need to understand how a society works as far as football is concerned. The Dutch and the German way of doing things reflects their society. We need to understand how African society works for the development of African football.”
It is not for a lack of money. South Africa has some of the most moneyed leagues on the African continent but these teams depend heavily on patronage. Smart has had no sponsors since he started his football academy two years ago. He’s been running the school from his own pocket unlike the other teams and academies around him which are owned largely by businessmen with political ties.
Smart and his boys have many challenges ahead. But he remains optimistic. One of his protégés is preparing for genuine trials in Britain in late September. As for his Ghanaian wards, although let down by the game they love, they are glad they landed on his doorstep.
“We eat three times daily here. I am happy here, everything will be OK,” says Sogbadzi-Eddo.
Unfortunately, optimism alone is not enough to cover the miles to the trials in Europe.
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The Bewildered Chasing A Broken Dream

There are millions of children playing football around the world, but only a fraction will ever make it to the professional ranks.
Ability is an obvious factor, you either have the talent or you don’t, but while technique and tactical awareness can be taught to a certain extent, there are a whole range of other issues that come into play.
One of the keys in developing players for the modern professional game is to get them into structured academies at the earliest possible age.
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In Europe and South America, it is common for youngsters to be linked to academies by the time they are at the age of seven or eight. The reason for this is simple, it is the best age to start teaching them the fundamentals of the game and set them on the correct path to a professional career.
In Africa there are millions of children playing the game; a handful of them are attached to clubs while the rest play at schools or on the streets.
The lack of structured coaching at a young age prevents them from taking the step up from street football. The few lucky individuals that attract interest from professional clubs are held back because they have already picked up bad habits that are difficult to dislodge.
A 17-year-old should have the basics of the game ingrained in them. They should not need to be taught how to pass, cross and shoot. Today, the sad reality is that a lot of players do not have these skills due to a lack of coaching in their formative years.
I look across the leagues of Africa and I see professional players who struggle with the basics.
The academies at Barcelona and Ajax Amsterdam are renowned for producing some of the world’s most talented stars. When one of their players reaches the age of 17, he has probably spent 10 years in the academy and will be more technically advanced than players from Africa. He will also know exactly what his role is in the side and where to position himself at any given moment in the game.
This is often the biggest criticism of players from Africa who move to Europe. Yes, they are skillful and have good physical attributes, but they lack the feel for the game that can only come with years of consistent and methodical coaching.
It is a huge challenge for our continent, not just to open academies to harness young talent, but to do it in the right way with expert coaching.
Those academies do exist in Africa, but they are few and far between and until we can get that right our players will always be at a disadvantage, relying solely on raw ability.
Some of the most successful players from our continent in the last two decades, such as Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor, were teenagers when they went to Europe and had the privilege of training at top academies. Had they only been spotted later in life, it’s doubtful they would have had anywhere near the success they have enjoyed.
Beyond the honing of skills at an early age, there are other factors that determine success.
Attitude is a major one. Players need the hunger to become a professional player and must be willing to put in hard work. Another factor is professionalism. There are hundreds of cases of footballers from all over the world – this is not only an African issue – who have looked world-class as teenagers but failed to live up to the promise because of factors outside of the game.
Think back to when you were 18. You probably felt invincible and perhaps even a little rebellious. For every player that manages to get past that phase of their life with dedication, there are others who fall by the wayside.
These days, we have players who are multi-millionaires by the age of 21, with more friends than they have ever had in their lives and lots of time on their hands to spend that money.
The temptations are huge and perhaps more so for African players who come from impoverished backgrounds and now have more money than they could ever dream of.
Today, clubs and agents provide much more support, in terms of counseling and financial guidance, but the player has to be a willing participant.
Africa has ability in abundance but the power to successfully harness it is very much a work in progress. It is why, to my mind, there are not a lot more African players in the top five leagues in Europe. The demands of the modern game are moving away from the purely physical attributes, which presents a problem for us.
Where is the next Eto’o, Didier Drogba or Michael Essien going to coming from? There aren’t any obvious superstars emerging from the continent. We have good young players floating around, but no great ones. They are not competing on an even keel with players from Europe and South America.
Our great challenge for the decades to come is to give them that opportunity and raise the standard of the development work we do so that the trickle of top players from Africa becomes a flood.

Where Are The  Messis Of  Africa

When Majida Nantanda – the coach of the Ugandan national women’s football team – was growing up, her four brothers treated her as an equal in their matches. She thought that was the way it was supposed to be.
When she went to school, she realized girls were not expected to run around kicking a ball. Nantanda’s opportunities to play the game were far fewer than those of her brothers. She knew that was not the way it was supposed to be.
Nantanda defied the odds, endured the jeers and forged a career in sport. Her determination and talent saw her play for the Ugandan national women’s football team for nine years. When she was done, she turned her attention to coaching and football development, with a twist.
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In 2009, Nantanda joined Tackle Africa, an organization that uses football for HIV/AIDS awareness among the youth. Her rationale was simple: “I committed to developing a grassroots football program to empower more girls and women in sports. But I also use football to address issues like health and education. Considering that football is by far the most popular sport in Uganda, if more coaches can be trained on how to provide HIV/AIDS education, it will have an important impact among the youth,” says Nantanda.
Nantanda offers something slightly different than her male counterparts, because she targets women’s education.
“For girls, it is about knowing their own rights, how to stand up for them and taking ownership of their bodies, something they learn through female coaches. Our female coaches teach girls to be strong, to speak up and make decisions. They work on empowering women to have free choice, particularly around their sex lives in an often male-dominated society,” says Tom Colborne, head of business development at Tackle Africa.
She is also a role model for young boys, who do not have the opportunity to meet many women in elevated positions within their societies. The female coaches are seen as figures of knowledge, confidence and authority, according to Colborne.
But it is not as simple as it sounds.
“I had many challenges in bringing a group of boys together to play organized football, and at the same time talk about an HIV topic related to the drill. Some parents discouraged their children when they heard I am speaking about condoms, but I did not lose hope. I explained to the parents, what, why and how football and life skills link together,” says Evelyn Achieng, a Tackle Africa coach in Kenya.
“I love the drills, we do them once a week. After we learn it, we practice and play it over and over until we remember it. Some drills show exactly what is happening in our bodies, so it is fun, but it is also important to learn. These games have really helped in my education. I am active, I listen and I concentrate. Here we all know each other and we help each other learn about discipline, HIV, life and making friends,” says Juma Christine, a beneficiary of Tackle Africa’s Kenyan project when he was younger.
Tackle Africa has 8,000 girls on their books, and 200 female coaches working in six countries across southern and East Africa. It is also working with the Tanzanian sports ministry to train 120 female coaches. Juliana Mokiwa is one of them and has already seen the dividends of her work pay off both in her personal life and in football.
“In Africa it is true that many women have no say with their husbands. Now, I have the knowledge about how I can make decisions. I have also learned different skills about football, which I will teach other coaches and players,” she says.
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Tackle Africa has seen the confidence and ability of female players grow, however footballing infrastructure remains a challenge, admits Colborne.
“There’s still a long way to go before there’s a women’s professional game in any of the countries we work in. Even the top division male players are rarely able to earn a decent living through the game. But, we see women’s national teams beginning to spring up and there are numerous organizations running women’s leagues,” he says.
Despite all that, Tackle Africa is not looking to unearth the next Nantanda, instead it is hoping to keep young people playing football, so they can reap the benefits associated with the program.
“We help female coaches to be better at coaching, so that they can develop players – not because we care about making better footballers, but because we know in order for our sessions to work, the coach must be credible [and only then will it have] young people coming back. With good female coaches, they can ensure girls attend their sessions as regularly as boys, and learn as much about football as they do about life.”

Tag: Schools

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The Bewildered Chasing A Broken Dream

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