Berliner Boersenzeitung - Young African players chase football 'dream' in Brazil

EUR -
AED 3.84909
AFN 70.983076
ALL 98.168084
AMD 408.033489
ANG 1.877746
AOA 956.772304
ARS 1045.934567
AUD 1.608014
AWG 1.888917
AZN 1.780997
BAM 1.956142
BBD 2.103608
BDT 124.501747
BGN 1.96788
BHD 0.392672
BIF 3077.56693
BMD 1.047943
BND 1.404259
BOB 7.239401
BRL 6.098928
BSD 1.041892
BTN 88.430422
BWP 14.233758
BYN 3.409661
BYR 20539.683689
BZD 2.100107
CAD 1.461529
CDF 3008.644792
CHF 0.933707
CLF 0.036935
CLP 1019.137039
CNY 7.592031
CNH 7.595984
COP 4600.207983
CRC 530.697762
CUC 1.047943
CUP 27.770491
CVE 110.899218
CZK 25.334232
DJF 185.535949
DKK 7.457456
DOP 62.791567
DZD 139.877767
EGP 51.749446
ERN 15.719146
ETB 127.546696
FJD 2.385066
FKP 0.827159
GBP 0.83215
GEL 2.871065
GGP 0.827159
GHS 16.552662
GIP 0.827159
GMD 74.404001
GNF 8980.654359
GTQ 8.08725
GYD 219.183481
HKD 8.154967
HNL 26.32885
HRK 7.475249
HTG 136.765194
HUF 411.595345
IDR 16624.306486
ILS 3.879155
IMP 0.827159
INR 88.307488
IQD 1364.864451
IRR 44092.203499
ISK 146.344923
JEP 0.827159
JMD 165.980576
JOD 0.743093
JPY 161.794551
KES 135.676997
KGS 90.649326
KHR 4194.772734
KMF 495.143365
KPW 943.148344
KRW 1467.769713
KWD 0.322609
KYD 0.868268
KZT 520.220796
LAK 22885.434193
LBP 93300.07746
LKR 303.238754
LRD 189.101446
LSL 18.801143
LTL 3.094303
LVL 0.63389
LYD 5.087986
MAD 10.539574
MDL 19.003682
MGA 4862.942225
MKD 61.540749
MMK 3403.678134
MNT 3560.910412
MOP 8.353519
MRU 41.455637
MUR 49.074871
MVR 16.201526
MWK 1806.650049
MXN 21.359806
MYR 4.668554
MZN 66.973635
NAD 18.801143
NGN 1769.410365
NIO 38.337062
NOK 11.559514
NPR 140.70592
NZD 1.790636
OMR 0.401068
PAB 1.047692
PEN 3.95069
PGK 4.194773
PHP 61.7584
PKR 289.326398
PLN 4.334357
PYG 8133.57593
QAR 3.820851
RON 4.978251
RSD 117.724856
RUB 108.694151
RWF 1422.262
SAR 3.934395
SBD 8.785488
SCR 14.270629
SDG 630.340687
SEK 11.508746
SGD 1.410154
SHP 0.827159
SLE 23.819809
SLL 21974.846653
SOS 595.409683
SRD 37.195668
STD 21690.30525
SVC 9.116766
SYP 2632.988191
SZL 18.794642
THB 36.22582
TJS 11.157609
TMT 3.667801
TND 3.328435
TOP 2.454385
TRY 36.218374
TTD 7.076236
TWD 34.002924
TZS 2777.049042
UAH 43.103352
UGX 3871.138521
USD 1.047943
UYU 44.554803
UZS 13366.334712
VES 48.817231
VND 26630.85264
VUV 124.413904
WST 2.925428
XAF 656.077858
XAG 0.034259
XAU 0.000393
XCD 2.832119
XDR 0.792554
XOF 656.077858
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.90718
ZAR 18.9268
ZMK 9432.745885
ZMW 28.781577
ZWL 337.437233
  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

Young African players chase football 'dream' in Brazil
Young African players chase football 'dream' in Brazil / Photo: Guilherme DIONIZIO - AFP

Young African players chase football 'dream' in Brazil

For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play football is easily summed up: "It was a dream."

Text size:

"I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people," he told AFP in Sao Paulo.

For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America's most prominent clubs.

He and a small number of other Africans are today tearing across pitches in Brazil, a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of footballers in the world, from Pele to Neymar.

For at least one, though, the transformative opportunity has also been tinged by racism.

In Brazil, an incubator for star players bought up by Europe's moneyed elite clubs, the benefit in return is new blood for its lower divisions, with players who are fiercely committed.

The Africans also are paid less than footballers from neighboring Argentina and Uruguay.

And European sides also are increasingly showcasing talented African players, burnishing their appeal and helping demolish longstanding barriers in Brazilian clubs against foreign talent.

"It's about intensity," said Ricardo Manfrim Goncalves, of the Quality agency representing players.

"They are going to commit more than what even a Brazilian player will."

- 'People underestimate us' -

The agent said the young African players -- usually strikers -- are frequently not of interest to the European clubs, and are seen as contributing to offset what he called a "decline" in Brazilian lower-division teams.

Although the African transfer trend is relatively minor for the moment, it has picked up since last year, adding a new aspect to the sport in Brazil, where Pele stills holds demi-god status, two years after dying at the age of 82.

Brazilian scouts now regularly scour Africa for promising young players, and have so far found them in Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

Since 2023, at least a dozen have been signed by or tried out for youth squads, ranging from first- and second-division teams to those that compete only in state championships, according to an AFP tally.

At the professional level, they include Angolan center-back Bastos, with the Botafogo club, which made it through to the November 30 final of the Copa Libertadores tournament.

There is also Congolese winger Yannick Bolasie with Criciuma, and Gambian forward Yusupha Njie with Santos, the club that brought Pele and Neymar into the limelight.

For those taking up the call, the reality of moving to Brazil -- the country with the biggest population of African descendants outside Africa -- has its problems.

Beyond the issues of language, separation from family members and cultural differences -- including, for some Muslim Africans, finding themselves in a majority-Catholic nation -- there is racism.

Brazil's classist society, in which people of European descent are often perceived as of higher status than those of African descent, can make the transition difficult.

Osvaldo Yamba Kinanga, who arrived in Sao Paulo nine years ago from Angola with his family and now plays in Santos' under-15s, said he was initially buffeted by the racism directed at him.

"A lot of people underestimate us," he said.

"I'm proud of being African -- we're more competitive. I don't want to speak badly of the Brazilians, but some just relax because they're born with the ability to play football."

- 'Land of football' -

Today a naturalized Brazilian citizen, Yamba Kinanga hopes to have the future choice of playing for the national side of either Angola or Brazil.

For new arrivals, the financial boost of playing in Brazil can be substantial. Some of their Brazilian peers earn monthly salaries in the thousands of dollars.

"There are players aged 11, 12, 13 who are sometimes earning absurd amounts" that can "warp" their development, said Manfrim Goncalves of the Quality agency.

For many of the African teens, though, the chance to develop their careers in the spiritual home of the beautiful game is the overriding appeal.

"The whole world knows Brazil as the land of football," said Coulibaly Yeko Appolinaire, a 16-year-old who was captain of Ivory Coast's national team in his category before starting five months ago with Santos.

His Portuguese is still coming along, but his ambition to make it big in Brazil is plain.

"We used to sit at home and watch the great players on the television. Now we'd love to be like those great players. That's my dream," he said.

(A.Lehmann--BBZ)