Aspire has always been quite secretive about how much it spent on the program, as it has been about many aspects of Football Dreams. But one academy official estimated at the beginning of 2016 that Aspire had spent well over $100 million on the project, and possibly as much as $200 million. That’s significantly more than Real Madrid paid to acquire Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, a much easier way to get your hands on a star player.
The amount spent by Aspire was, of course, next to nothing relative to Qatar’s overall wealth, but the country obviously had to consider the return on its investment in such a radical soccer experiment. The original goal of Football Dreams, to help build the kind of world-class Qatari national team envisioned by Sheikh Jassim, clearly didn’t pan out since Aspire only hosted the African kids in Doha for a few years and the country is still ranked toward the bottom of FIFA’s top 100. Qatar once again failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, so the country will make its debut in 2022 when it gets an automatic spot for hosting the tournament.
Aspire has also trumpeted Football Dreams as a humanitarian project, but its merits in this respect are mixed. There’s no doubt it changed lives. Without Football Dreams, there’s little chance Diawandou would have ever made it to Barcelona or Serigne Mbaye would have become the first deaf player in Senegal’s first division. Ibrahima might never have built a home for his mother. The program also benefited the countries involved by giving away millions of dollars of soccer equipment at fields where the scouts held tryouts and by handing out thousands of mosquito nets with Messi’s image on them to prevent malaria.
But Football Dreams would likely get poor marks as a humanitarian program if judged by its transparency and cost-effectiveness. Much of the money spent benefited a small number of kids, the roughly twenty they chose every year to join Aspire, as well as their families. Only a minority of the boys could be expected to achieve their dream of becoming a professional in Europe given the challenge of choosing the right players, and that’s exactly what happened. Although many of the kids in the first class got to go to Eupen, subsequent classes weren’t so lucky, and a fair number of the boys ended up unhappy in the end, a curious result for an expensive humanitarian project. It didn’t help that so few players received high school diplomas while they were at the academy that could have aided them if professional soccer didn’t work out.
None of this is meant to imply, though, that the officials running Football Dreams had anything but the best intentions for the kids. They may have made some mistakes along the way, but so did the boys, and there’s no doubt the academy staff wanted to see them succeed. The fundamental problem is that youth soccer at the highest levels is difficult to pair with humanitarian goals. There are simply too many broken dreams. Remember, only around 1 percent of the 10,000 kids in the entire English academy system end up making a living in the game. That means for every Diawandou, there are 99 others who end up more like Bernard and watch their dreams of becoming a star slip away. Technology may make the scouting process more efficient going forward, but there will still be plenty of broken dreams.
Even so, the supply line of young dreamers will continue, especially from many places in Africa where making it to Europe can seem like the only way up and the only way out. It may be a nearly impossible dream, but for many of them, the away game seems like only game worth playing. They don’t focus on the 99 percent chance of failure. They see the 1 percent chance of success.
These young dreamers from Africa and elsewhere form the foundation of the entire multibillion-dollar professional soccer industry. But the dreams that play out on TV every weekend in the Premier League, La Liga, and every other major league around the world make up an infinitesimally small percentage of the total. They are the dreams of those who made it. Fans rarely see the disappointment of boys like Bernard who didn’t. They often struggle in obscurity to let go of their dreams and figure out a new way forward.
Scouts are dreamers too. They face equally daunting odds of discovering a kid who can become a star. If only 1 percent of kids in the English academy system make a living in soccer, imagine what Colomer’s odds were of finding the next Messi in Africa. With Football Dreams, he and the Qataris were playing their own improbable away game, one that offered the possibility of international acclaim if they could produce a true superstar.
After a decade of searching for talent, the final verdict on their scouting efforts is still out. By 2017, nearly four dozen Football Dreams players found by Colomer had represented their national teams in official matches, mostly at levels below the senior squad, according to Aspire. Over two dozen had signed professional contracts with Eupen, and others were playing at lower levels in Europe or back in Africa. Those would be impressive statistics for a normal academy operation, but Football Dreams was far from normal, and Colomer had set the bar much higher for himself when he first started.
A Football Dreams superstar could still be in the cards, though. One player found in Nigeria during the fourth year of the search, Henry Onyekuru, has shown great initial promise. The swift 19-year-old winger scored 22 goals during Eupen’s first year in Belgium’s top division, making him joint top scorer in the league. After the season finished, Everton swooped in to buy Onyekuru for a reported 7 million pounds, beating out Arsenal and several other Premier League clubs. But England’s top league presents a far greater challenge than the one in Belgium, and it remains to be seen whether Onyekuru can continue pouring in goals at the same rate. Everton loaned the winger to the Belgian club Anderlecht for the 2017/18 season, so Onyekuru’s day of reckoning is still to come.
If the Nigerian fails to make the grade, Colomer will have to hope one of the other Football Dreams kids he discovered turns out to be that gem of a player he was seeking. Aspire said it has no plans to shutter the academy in Senegal while the boys Colomer found are still training there. Aspire also said it hasn’t decided whether its move to stop the Football Dreams search is permanent and will make a final decision after reviewing the program’s results over its first ten years. That means Colomer will have to wait to see whether he’ll get another chance to scour Africa for that future superstar he may not yet have found. If he does, Clemente Konboye, now an ex-Nigerian militant, is once again ready to escort the Spanish scout to Ogulagha to give the local kids another look. Fair warning, though: the field there is still a swampy bog, and ducks are bathing in the goalmouths.
Acknowledgments
Many of the people who worked on Football Dreams were generous with their time and provided critical insight into the program. I would like to offer particular thanks to the head of Aspire, Ivan Bravo, for his early enthusiasm and assistance, and to Ndongo Diaw, who patiently escorted me around Senegal during my first trip to the country and helped me make contact with the families, friends, and former coaches of the Football Dreams kids. These individuals were incredibly helpful in providing details about the boys, not only in Senegal but also elsewhere in West Africa. This was especially true of Bernard Appiah’s old coach, Justice Oteng; Diawandou Diagne’s uncle, Cheikh Gueye; and Ibrahima Dramé’s old coach, Amadou Traoré.
But most importantly I would like to thank the Football Dreams kids themselves for the hours they spent speaking with me, especially the boys who make up the heart of the book: Bernard, Diawandou, and Ibrahima. Their stories were as gripping as they were heartfelt, and they didn’t hold back. One of the hardest parts about the reporting process was hearing stories from boys like Bernard who hadn’t been able to achieve the life in soccer they had dreamed about and were desperately looking for anyone who could help them find a team in Europe. They often turned to me as well, and it was with a heavy heart that I had to tell them I was only a journalist.
I received assistance from many others along the way who are too numerous to mention individually. They’re spread out across West Africa, Qatar, Belgium, Spain, and many other places. They include scouts, coaches, players, fans, federation officials, academic researchers,
translators, drivers, and friends who hosted me as I tried to keep my expenses to a minimum. Without their help, I would never have been able to get where I needed to go, connect with the people I needed to interview, or hoover up the vast amount of information needed to tell the story.
There are a few people who must be thanked by name, though, because the book never would have happened without their help. I would like to start with my agents, Will Lippincott and Ethan Bassoff. They saw the potential in my idea, even when it was only vaguely formed, and were vital in helping me craft the book proposal.
That was only the beginning of the process. I would never have been able to produce the finished product without the incredible help and support from my editor at W. W. Norton & Company, Matt Weiland, and many of his colleagues. Matt was masterful in helping me mold the book’s structure so that the various components blended together in a smoothly flowing narrative. Plus, we played pickup soccer in Brooklyn together on the weekends, so I challenge anyone to come up with a better editor than that.
Finally, I owe the biggest thanks to my family. I would never have taken on such a project if my parents, Marjorie and Steve Abbot, hadn’t raised me to have the self-confidence to take risks in life and exposed me to the wonders the rest of the world offered when I was still a child. My parents also schlepped me to countless soccer practices and games when I was growing up, so I’m indebted to them for my love of the sport as well.
But there is one person who stands above everyone else in helping me through the entire book process. That’s my amazing wife, Elizabeth Radin. She was the one who encouraged me that it wasn’t a crazy idea to quit my job to write a book about Football Dreams. She was with me every step of the way as I experienced the myriad sources of stress that came along with writing a book and read every draft I produced. She even served as my French translator in Senegal and Belgium and is now more fluent in soccer vocabulary than she ever wanted to be. I truly couldn’t have done this without her love and support carrying me across the finish line.
A Note on Sources
This is a work of nonfiction, based on interviews; travel through West Africa, Qatar, Belgium, and Spain; historical photos and video; and secondary sources, including books, articles, and academic papers. The research and writing were largely carried out over a period of three and a half years, from 2014 to 2017.
Many of the people who worked on Football Dreams were extremely helpful in informing me about the program and the kids who were involved. I held interviews with everyone from top officials, like Josep Colomer and Andreas Bleicher, all the way down to volunteers on the ground in Africa who made the tryouts happen. Michael Browne, who was Aspire’s head soccer coach until 2014, was very helpful in outlining his experience with the Football Dreams kids at the academy in Doha, as were several other coaches who worked there, including Arnold Rijsenburg.
A handful of people who worked closely with Sheikh Jassim to set up Aspire proved especially helpful in learning about the academy’s history. These include Vincent Chaudel, a French sports consultant; Zohair Ammar, an Egyptian who advised the academy’s founding committee; and Mohana Rao, Aspire’s first marketing director.
The group that worked at the academy in Senegal was also incredibly helpful, including country director Lamine Savané, head coach Jordi Rovira, and members of the staff who watched closely over the boys, such as Wendy Kinyeki, Ndongo Diaw, Forewah Emmanuel, Lamine Thiare, and Dr. Babacar Ngom. All of them provided touching stories about the kids and often didn’t sugarcoat the challenges the program faced. I would also like to thank the Football Dreams country directors in Ghana and Nigeria, Capt. Andy Sam and Col. Sam Ahmedu, for the hours they spent speaking with me. Ahmedu also connected me with Austin Bekewei, who was incredibly helpful in organizing a trip to Ogulagha in 2015 so I could experience firsthand what it was like for Colomer to visit years earlier. I even traveled with the same militant, Clemente Konboye, who accompanied Colomer in 2007. In total, I held interviews with more than 200 people inside and outside of Football Dreams over the course of my research.
Most important were the hours I spent interviewing the boys at the center of the book: Bernard, Diawandou, and Ibrahima. Input from their family members, friends, and former coaches was also vital. For Bernard, this was especially true of his father, Noah Appiah; his old coach, Justice Oteng; the local Football Dreams coordinator, Eugene Komey; and the lawyer who tried to help Oteng, Farouck Seidu. Youssif Chibsah, the former Ghana national team player who helped Bernard after he left the academy; Wilhelm Myrer, who tried to find him a club in Scandinavia; and Arenton Ofoe Chiri, who also tried to get him to Europe, were all instrumental in understanding the challenges Bernard faced when he returned home.
Diawandou’s background in Thiès was outlined in detail by his mother, Khadidiatou Gueye; his uncle, Cheikh Gueye; and his former coach, Bousso Ndiaye. For Ibrahima, his mother, Oumou; his brother, Sekou; and his old coach, Amadou Traoré, all provided invaluable assistance in learning about the big striker’s childhood growing up in Ziguinchor and his experience once he made it to the academy and ultimately decided to leave. Many of these people not only shared their stories but also physically guided me to key locations from the boys’ pasts, like where they lived growing up, where they learned how to play soccer, and where they tried out for Football Dreams. The boys who play a secondary role in the story, such as Serigne Mbaye, Hamza Zakari, John Felagha, Samuel Asamoah, and John Benson, provided important insight to fill out the stories of the main characters, as well as their own. In total, I interviewed over two dozen Football Dreams kids from the first two classes, as well as a smattering of others.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the reporting process was spending time in the charming town of Eupen, Belgium. With my then-girlfriend, now-wife providing French translation, we had a lovely time canvassing the town’s cafes and bars to get public sentiment on Aspire’s decision to buy the local team. Officials at the club were helpful as well, including the general manager, Christoph Henkel; the team manager, Michael Radermacher; and the coach, Bartolome “Tintin” Marquez. The lead soccer writer of the Grenz Echo newspaper in Eupen, Thomas Evers, was also incredibly helpful in learning about the club and understanding the town’s response to Aspire. Sadly, Evers was killed in a car accident in May 2015, not long after I met him.
I relied on articles from a wide array of news outlets throughout the writing of this book, including the BBC, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Observer, Le Monde, Marca, AS, La Vanguardia, El Periódico de Catalunya, Grenz Echo, the Belfast Telegraph, the Qatar Tribune, Bergensavisen, GhanaSoccerNet.com, and VoetbalNieuws.be. I found the soccer magazine The Blizzard to be filled with a wealth of useful information, including the history of France’s top academy, Clairefontaine, and the story of Diego Maradona apologizing to Jorge Valdano for not passing him the ball when he scored his legendary goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. I relied on Aspire’s magazine for several quotes from Colomer about Diawandou’s jump to Barcelona, including the one that ends the book’s last chapter.
Though I have played soccer nearly my whole life, I knew I needed to beef up my knowledge of the sport, especially in Africa. I read David Goldblatt’s masterful tome, The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer, and then followed that up with several Africa-focused books, including The Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of African Football by Ian Hawkey, Africa United: Passion, Politics, and the First World Cup in Africa by Steve Bloomfield, African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game by Peter Alegi, and The Lost Boys: Inside Football’s Slave Trade by Ed Hawkins. I supplemented my knowledge of this last topic, the illicit trade in underage African soccer players, by holding interviews with Jean-Claude Mbvoumin, the founder of the NGO Foot Solidaire.
I also visited several of the top soccer academies in Africa, including Right to Dream and the West African Football Academy in Ghana, ASEC Mimosas in the Ivory Coast, and Diambars and Gener
ation Foot in Senegal. A host of officials at these academies were extremely generous with their time and walked me through their experiences scouting and training young players in Africa. They included Tom Vernon, Gareth Henderby, and Joe Mulberry at Right to Dream; Karel Brokken at the West African Football Academy; Benoit You and Julien Chevalier at ASEC Mimosas; Moussa Kamara at Diambars; and Olivier Perrin at Generation Foot. I also interviewed a variety of officials at national soccer federations across West Africa.
To learn more about soccer in the Middle East, and Qatar in particular, I read When Friday Comes: Football, War and Revolution in the Middle East by James Montague and The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup by Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert. For a deeper understanding of Qatar’s unique history, I relied on the book Qatar: Small State, Big Politics by Mehran Kamrava, director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. I also interviewed Dr. Kamrava and several other Qatar experts, including Dr. Steven Wright of Qatar University and Dr. David Roberts of King’s College London. I relied on information and photos from “The Origins of Doha and Qatar Project” and U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks as well.
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