The growing popularity of football is fast transforming the sport into a huge multi billion dollar industry. It is also bringing millions of young people around the world into contact with the charm of the game.
So strong and positive is the image that the glittering world of the game that almost every kid who loves football in the developing world is trying to travel to Europe to play professional football. But more often than not, this dream ends up in frustration.
"The slave trade." That is how Brazilian-born Pele, the man widely acclaimed as the greatest football player of all times, describes the poor treatment of kids under the ages of 16 who are brought in from Brazil, Argentina and many African countries as potential players in Europe's expensive leagues. In an interview with one of Germany's biggest national dailies, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Pele points an accusing finger at recruitment agents.
Painting a vivid picture of how the whole process begins Pele says agents go to parents and get their consent to bring 16 and 17-year-olds to Europe. Instant success is all they want from these teenagers so they can sign them up with big clubs for big money. "The agents don't want to know, they drop them" if the kids are not making it big, Pele asserts. The soccer hero says the trade is already so pervasive that today agents are even operating and recruiting over the internet.
Many European cities today have their share of these heart-broken kids who have chased the European soccer dream so hard but met a brick wall. "Look at Paris. Look at Brussels", Burkhard Ziese, a German football coach with a combined African and Asian experience that spans more than two decades exclaims in disbelief. "The Brussels central train station is full of young Africans who are hanging out there just looking for a team with which to play."
The London-based African Soccer Magazine has an attentive ear and a sharp eye for things African in Europe. Its deputy editor, Emmanuel Heusu says the mass migration of teenage African players to Europe took on alarming proportions in the late 1980's and early 90's. Nigeria and Ghana have been the main countries of departure while Belgium and France have remained by far the largest recipient nations. The many players who have recently defected their teams while out on European competitions have, unfortunately, only come to add to the swelling list of the continent's promising talents that have strayed into oblivion.
Heusu mentions Neh Lamteh, a Ghanaian player, "who was nicknamed the new Pele" after his dazzling performance at the under 17 world championship in Scotland as well as Philip Osondu of the Nigerian 1987 under 17 team "of whom reports say he is now cleaning tube stations in Belgium", as some of the casualties.
The last 15 years have witnessed an exponential growth in the commercial value of football. In Europe, but very timidly also in other parts of the world, broadcast rights for games have skyrocketed, player salaries have soared, endorsements and promotions by players have developed into a whole business sector of its own. The struggle to get a piece of the pie has seen many other auxiliary service providers join the football arena - the recruitment agents, managers and promoters.
Salaries and working conditions for football players in Africa are a far cry from what obtains in Europe. "For a player who makes 500 dollars a month in Africa" Emmanuel Heusu explains "mention of a possible relocation to the UK for example, where he may earn from 10,000 to 15,000 pounds a week, makes him extremely vulnerable".
Keeping an eye on the money is not only a player attitude. Officials in many African football federations who suffer from the hunger for money "and I have known many of them personally" Burkhard Ziese points out, - have also helped push these kids into premature adventures which are doomed to fail. He says some of the departures are even initiated by the officials themselves in complete disregard of the existing national player transfer regulations.
Talking about players, Pele singles out a much larger societial vice - greed - as the added element they have brought to an atmosphere in today's football world already polluted by big money. "They earn too much and they complain too much" is the verdict of the man who still remembers he was on a "one dollar per month" salary when he started playing football in the 1950's.
Fortunately, Pele's is still a voice that is listened to where it matters. The World Football governing body - FIFA - has already presented the European Commission with proposals to revamp the current player transfer system. During an early November visit to Cameroon FIFA President, Joseph Sepp Blatter was eager to show the continent that something was being done as he announced that transfer of players below 16 will henceforth be banned. Burkhard Ziese applauds the FIFA ban but says the media which has been largely responsible for projecting this wrong perception of Europe as a "soccer paradise" can be used effectively to counter the image. "A film which combines the tale of successful African players and those who have fallen on the way side" he suggests, will offer a compelling tale which these boys can identify with. Pele however says whatever measures FIFA implements must only come to supplement national initiatives as he invites Asian and African governments to live up to their responsibilities by protecting their children.
Pele, who scored more than 1,000 goals in his career and won two World Cups with Brazil in 1958 and 1970, said he still felt great after turning 60 on October 23. At his age he has gone past playing football himself but his heart is still very much attached to the game. This frank and upfront critique of a practice that is doing disservice to the game and above all ruining the lives of many kids, is yet another dimension of his selfless generosity to the game of his life.
