Africa’s problem: Talent is falling in wrong hands
GHANA, WHICH HAS A HUGE TALENT POOL, IS ONE SUCH COUNTRY STRUGGLING TO HOLD ON TO ITS YOUNGSTERS.
MUMBAI: Football scouts are travelling to the nook and corner of the world in their quest to unearth the future Messis, Ronaldos and Neymars.
They have fanned out to almost all African countries as well, where football is the top sport and youngsters playing ball is ever-increasing. While there’s abundance of talent, not everyone falls in the right hands.
Ghana, which has a huge talent pool, is one such country struggling to hold on to its youngsters. Scouts take them away at a young age, but if their FIFA U-17 World Cup coach Samuel Fabin is to be believed, thing are not as rosy as they appear.
“We’ve an abundance of talent in Ghana, like most of Africa. But the problem is most of them leave the country. Not everyone makes it big though. It’s important to get the right club, (but) not many get that and soon fizzle out,” said Fabin after his wards booked a place in the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup with a 2-0 win over Niger here on Wednesday.
Can’t that be stopped? “No,” says Fabin.
“In our country football is a way out of poverty. If parents think their ward has a chance to progress in football, they support him to play.”
Not every move follows a legal path. Some youngsters and their families are conned by the scouts and when they land in Europe, there is no trial waiting for them.
Sportswriter Ed Hawkins’ investigative book – The Lost Boys: Inside Football’s Slave Trade – published in 2015 uncovers the dark underbelly of the football scouting network.
According to his book, boys from around the world are sold a vision of becoming the next big thing but soon discover they have been exploited. Only a few even make it to the academies, it adds.
To get his investigation going, Hawkins, with the help of Oxford United, set up a fake company to find out how football trafficking worked.
The book also reveals how scouts, agents and clubs disregard FIFA’s Article 19 that prohibits international transfers for those under-18.
Top clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona have faced FIFA wrath for flouting that rule. While implementation is being tightened up, illegal trade is still rampant.
But Fabin and his African counterparts remain helpless.