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ABIDJAN - Driving through Abidjan at dusk young footballers seem to take up every spare patch of land: from rubbish-strewn parks to abandoned parking lots, barefooted children can be seen everywhere, kicking their way through the dust.
Most are bare-chested but a select few wear training bibs donated
by Western clubs or, increasingly, by Lebanese businessmen who have paid their parents a stipend to enrol their talented offspring in illegal football schools of excellence.
Fuelled by the postwar economic crises that have ravaged this stretch of West Africa, a lucrative trade in young players is on the rise.
Children who have not even finished primary education are being scouted by the major clubs from France, Belgium, Morocco and Tunisia.
Lebanese businessmen in Abidjan, an entrepreneurial community once preoccupied with diamond and timber smuggling, are turning their attention to football, establishing illegal training schools across the country in an attempt to farm the best talent out to some of the Middle East and Europe's largest clubs.
The children's parents and the youngsters themselves dream of success, but it is a process of exploitation that is causing increasingly alarm amongst West Africa-based NGOs such as Save the Children and Caritas.
The desire to escape this poverty-stricken place is not unexpected.
Today 90 per cent of all child deaths in the world take place in 42 countries, 39 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. Ivory Coast, the world's largest exporter of cocoa and once a symbol of African economic triumph, is today one of the most unstable and violent nations on Earth, ranking 164 out of 177 countries in the United Nations' Human Development Index.
The nation has been divided between a Government-run south and rebel-held north since a failed coup in September 2002. In March this year leaders on both sides signed a fragile peace accord, but aid officials say much needs to be done to rehabilitate the country which has become a breeding ground for exploitation and, with the success of their national team, the centre of Africa's football trade.
On a dirt playing field on the outskirts of local football club Adjame, youngsters in blue vests juggle footballs in the searing heat. The pitch, overlooked on one side by a busy motorway and on another by a landfill site, is covered in broken glass and tin cans; the goalposts are rusting and framed with strawberry nets. In the tiny patch of ground around 40 boys, some as young as nine, make shuttle runs back and forward.
Balancing a cheap synthetic ball on his head Doho Lou Olivier stands out.
"We call him Shacala," his coach K Toussaint says of his star pupil. "He is named after a sorcerer in a famous Brazilian movie. The French club Lille want to take him. His contract is owned by a Lebanese but we are training him on behalf of the businessmen and his family. If we sell him on we all take a cut."
At his home, Doho's importance to his family is evident. Squeezed together in two rooms are nine people, including his sister and her newborn child. The smell of cheap cooking fat and fish-head soup is overpowering. Few people venture to this slum and the arrival of Westerners is greeted with verbal abuse and throat-cutting gestures.
Doho's mother, Gasso Youa, clutches one of her son's plastic trophies and strokes his head, making him flinch.
"He represents all of our dreams. I am told he is good enough to go to the West. He is only 14 but he can go now. He is the future of this family. We trust his coach and his agent to get the best price. They have told us they can sell him to a Moroccan club for $20,000 but we are holding out for a French team.
"He can't go as a child, though, so getting him out may not be so easy. A local businessman has offered us the chance to get him on a boat to Europe in return for a cut in his transfer fee."
His mother points to the success of her neighbours' son, Traore Abdul Razak, 19, who has signed for the Norwegian club Rosenborg and earns US$8000 ($10,684) a month.
Last year Sepp Blatter, the head of the world football federation, Fifa, accused Europe's clubs of "despicable" behaviour, saying that they engaged in "social and economic rape" as they scoured the developing world fortalent.
"I find it unhealthy, if not despicable, for rich clubs to send scouts shopping in Africa, South America and Asia to buy the most promising players there," said Blatter.
"Europe's leading clubs conduct themselves increasingly as neo-colonialists who don't give a damn about heritage and culture, but engage in social and economic rape."
Each year thousands of young players leave Ivory Coast for teams abroad. Some are as young as 13.
Mon Emmanuel, one of the first African footballers to play in Europe, claimed that at least 90 per cent of West African players leaving the region are doing so illegally and most will end up on football's growing scrapheap.
"Look around Abidjan and you will see these football schools of excellence everywhere. The Lebanese organise most of them, in some they charge parents a training fee and demand 50 per cent of transfers. Many kids are missing school to play football and the ones who leave are trafficked or go to the Middle East and Europe on false papers.
"A young footballer can be worth much more than a diamond. It is the parents' fault. They get lulled into this belief that their son can make money in Europe. It is a new slave trade. The reality for most young players is further poverty and abuse.
"In countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Morocco and Tunisia the players more often or not end up on the street or sleeping 14 to a room. The majority are deported."
Save the Children's Ivory Coast Country Manager, Heather Kerr, says that the exploitation of young footballers in the country is a fast growing concern.
"The links between football and the trafficking of teenagers is deeply concerning. Many parents see in their children "potential geniuses" who will help secure the family's future but they neglect to think about the consequences of turning their children into objects of transaction."
In a decrepit hotel, occupied only a few years ago by inebriated rebels holding siege to the city, where now a huge mural depicts Les Elephants, the Ivory Coast's adored national football team, a Lebanese businessman gives an insight into the dark trade of potential football stars.
"Football slavery exists in Africa. But Africa has long been exploited for diamonds, for gold, for its people, so why should footballers be any different?" says the businessman, who gives his name as Mr Shalhoub.
"Young players are a valuable commodity and we Lebanese are astute businessmen."
Rich rewards for finding next big star
* Lebanese businessmen in Ivory Coast, who were once more interested in diamond and timber smuggling, are turning their attention to football.
* They are establishing illegal training schools across the country in an attempt to farm the best talent out to some of the Middle East and Europe's largest clubs.
* Children who have not even finished primary education are also being scouted by major clubs in France, Belgium, Morocco and Tunisia.
* The interest in football in Ivory Coast is fuelled by the national team's recent success. Last year they were beaten by hosts Egypt in a penalty shoot-out at the African Cup, and were eliminated in the first round of their first appearance at the World Cup after losing 2-1 to Argentina and the Netherlands, and beating Serbia and Montenegro 3-2.
* Ivory Coast's team captain Didier Drogba is considered a national hero and plays for top-flight English club Chelsea.
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