Every year between 14,000 and 15,000 children leave West Africa with the dream of becoming soccer players in Europe. Very few of them make it: most, lured by alleged procurers, are instead abandoned to their fate after paying significant sums to their exploiters.

Fifa prohibits the transfer of minors from one continent to another for football reasons, but the youth sectors of the big European teams are full of very youngsters raised in Africa, often brought in through illegal routes and not recognizing any ownership rights to the African teams where they grew up football-wise.

Families often go as far as spending up to 9,000 euros to give their children a chance, who are entrusted with the future and maintenance of their entire family in Africa, as well as the hope for an entire neighborhood or village.

But most after failing a tryout or getting injured are left to fend for themselves, a minor on a foreign continent with no home or protection in the suburbs of half of Europe.

Added to this is the shame of the scammed person who does not want to admit that he has been subjected to this scam. He pursues this dream anyway and often lives a double life: the one he tells at home and the one he actually lives.

The report reconstructs the investigation by the Prato Public Prosecutor’s Office, one of several inquiries opened in Italy in recent years into the trafficking of baby soccer players involving prosecutors and presidents of Italian teams and minors from the African continent.

Victims of trafficking are interviewed, families of African children eager to leave for Europe to fulfill their dreams, investigators and activists such as the Foot Solidaire association fighting to curb “the phenomenon.” But also African boys who have managed to become professional soccer players.

The report was filmed between Italy, France and the Ivory Coast and was first aired in July 2021 on Rai3. It received a special mention at the Venice Tv Award 2022 and was hosted at the Zoom Festival in Barcelona in the same year. The documentary also was acquired by Al Jazeera.