Zürcher Nachrichten - Young African players chase football 'dream' in Brazil

EUR -
AED 3.879496
AFN 71.757131
ALL 98.290674
AMD 417.887896
ANG 1.9018
AOA 962.19481
ARS 1066.276545
AUD 1.623289
AWG 1.901191
AZN 1.790669
BAM 1.956221
BBD 2.130548
BDT 126.097119
BGN 1.955496
BHD 0.398091
BIF 3117.544274
BMD 1.056217
BND 1.418339
BOB 7.291534
BRL 6.349027
BSD 1.055222
BTN 89.103742
BWP 14.415032
BYN 3.452726
BYR 20701.856302
BZD 2.126947
CAD 1.478936
CDF 3031.34326
CHF 0.930847
CLF 0.037397
CLP 1031.892312
CNY 7.648385
CNH 7.65186
COP 4666.578649
CRC 538.923559
CUC 1.056217
CUP 27.989755
CVE 110.288197
CZK 25.256246
DJF 187.909524
DKK 7.457749
DOP 63.714608
DZD 140.858172
EGP 52.381867
ERN 15.843257
ETB 130.727772
FJD 2.392439
FKP 0.83369
GBP 0.831723
GEL 2.888761
GGP 0.83369
GHS 16.303429
GIP 0.83369
GMD 74.991114
GNF 9094.171116
GTQ 8.141712
GYD 220.69642
HKD 8.221192
HNL 26.698121
HRK 7.534271
HTG 138.343028
HUF 411.62262
IDR 16749.438885
ILS 3.844377
IMP 0.83369
INR 89.326608
IQD 1382.290743
IRR 44440.337179
ISK 145.662634
JEP 0.83369
JMD 166.256543
JOD 0.748964
JPY 158.47218
KES 137.044409
KGS 91.678667
KHR 4253.015353
KMF 492.725985
KPW 950.595042
KRW 1474.463336
KWD 0.324683
KYD 0.879385
KZT 540.393663
LAK 23158.871095
LBP 94493.975284
LKR 306.744519
LRD 189.41253
LSL 19.175133
LTL 3.118735
LVL 0.638895
LYD 5.148083
MAD 10.559821
MDL 19.321064
MGA 4927.036323
MKD 61.539109
MMK 3430.552129
MNT 3589.025847
MOP 8.458579
MRU 42.094249
MUR 49.061075
MVR 16.318516
MWK 1829.784866
MXN 21.549745
MYR 4.694896
MZN 67.47977
NAD 19.175133
NGN 1760.188127
NIO 38.829822
NOK 11.695973
NPR 142.568687
NZD 1.785644
OMR 0.406656
PAB 1.055227
PEN 3.959527
PGK 4.255016
PHP 61.998362
PKR 293.348201
PLN 4.29591
PYG 8229.730991
QAR 3.846309
RON 4.975707
RSD 116.952797
RUB 113.551418
RWF 1468.843714
SAR 3.968166
SBD 8.862286
SCR 14.639535
SDG 635.313851
SEK 11.524232
SGD 1.415088
SHP 0.83369
SLE 23.97376
SLL 22148.350702
SOS 603.026837
SRD 37.39538
STD 21861.562682
SVC 9.232942
SYP 2653.777147
SZL 19.183035
THB 36.181249
TJS 11.501983
TMT 3.707322
TND 3.333401
TOP 2.473766
TRY 36.641102
TTD 7.170508
TWD 34.330756
TZS 2788.413485
UAH 43.88443
UGX 3893.819002
USD 1.056217
UYU 45.199507
UZS 13574.148262
VES 49.890432
VND 26771.408202
VUV 125.396223
WST 2.948526
XAF 656.094999
XAG 0.034383
XAU 0.000397
XCD 2.854479
XDR 0.80717
XOF 656.094999
XPF 119.331742
YER 263.975043
ZAR 19.055409
ZMK 9507.222275
ZMW 28.463987
ZWL 340.101494
  • BCC

    -2.0100

    146.4

    -1.37%

  • RIO

    0.2900

    62.32

    +0.47%

  • SCS

    -0.0700

    13.47

    -0.52%

  • BP

    0.1700

    29.13

    +0.58%

  • AZN

    0.8400

    67.2

    +1.25%

  • CMSC

    -0.0500

    24.52

    -0.2%

  • BTI

    0.2300

    37.94

    +0.61%

  • GSK

    0.3100

    34.33

    +0.9%

  • BCE

    0.3900

    27.02

    +1.44%

  • NGG

    0.5000

    63.33

    +0.79%

  • RBGPF

    1.0000

    62

    +1.61%

  • JRI

    0.1700

    13.41

    +1.27%

  • CMSD

    -0.0700

    24.36

    -0.29%

  • RYCEF

    0.1100

    6.91

    +1.59%

  • RELX

    0.2400

    47.05

    +0.51%

  • VOD

    0.1100

    8.97

    +1.23%

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.

Y.Keller--NZN