Like Brazilians, the African kids Colomer assembled in Senegal had spent thousands of hours playing in the street and elsewhere before they even made it to the academy, and the experience showed when they took the field. They played professional teams from Senegal’s top leagues on the weekends and often crushed them. One of Diawandou’s best memories was when his class destroyed one of the country’s most successful clubs, Jeanne d’Arc, as Colomer proudly watched from the sidelines. “It was an amazing game,” said Diawandou. “They were older than us, but we won 6-0.” The Football Dreams players developed the reputation as the team to beat in Senegal, and opposing clubs celebrated like it was the World Cup on the rare occasions they won. Journalists even printed the results in local newspapers even though the games were only friendlies.
The Football Dreams players began to build a reputation in Europe as well. The second class of kids traveled to Italy in May 2010 to compete in the Ciociaria Cup, a tournament held at an area between Rome and Naples with 32 teams from around the world. They blew away most of the competition, outscoring their opponents 19-1. The team took home the trophy after beating a side from Paraguay, Club Nacional, 2-1 in the final, and Ibrahima was the tournament’s top scorer, with twelve goals.
It was the first major tournament that any of the Football Dreams teams had won, and the kids were ecstatic. A photo of the players taken on the field after the victory shows them crowded around the tall metal trophy they won, wearing blue and white Aspire uniforms. Ibrahima stands at the back with a smile on his face and his arms around his teammates, while several of the other players scream in delight. The only disappointment was that the trophy ended up getting mangled on the way home when they were forced to put it through the X-ray machine at the airport in Rome, and it got stuck.
The Football Dreams players also traveled to Spain at least once a year to play tournaments and friendlies against the country’s top youth teams. Once again, they almost always came out on top, even against Barcelona and Real Madrid. “Every time we play against Barcelona, we have to play against one year older than us because if we play the same age, we beat them,” said Colomer.
On one occasion, the first class of kids took on one of Real Madrid’s youth teams at the club’s glamorous training facility, Ciudad Real Madrid. One of the strikers from the first class, the Nigerian Jasper Uwa, who scored against Neymar’s Brazil in Doha, got injured before the match, so the coaches plucked Ibrahima from the second class to see if he could keep up his goal-scoring ways against older kids at one of the world’s top clubs.
The answer was an emphatic yes. Ibrahima scored a hat trick and provided an assist to help the team bowl over Real Madrid 5-0. Lamine Savané, the Football Dreams country director in Senegal, was at the match and noticed several Real Madrid executives gathered at their office windows watching the carnage taking place on the field below. “The people at Real Madrid were pissed off,” said Savané. “We beat them so badly. Since then, they have never accepted any friendly matches against them.”
Playing together helped Ibrahima and Diawandou forge a strong friendship. Ibrahima may have been outraged when Diawandou hacked him down during their first encounter in Thiès, but he eventually forgave him and gained respect for him as a leader and role model. He was impressed by how focused Diawandou was on his quest to become a star, day in and day out. “It’s very simple what he does,” said Ibrahima. “He trains very hard, never gets injured, and plays all the games.”
Unlike many of the Football Dreams players, Diawandou wasn’t one to do a lot of socializing in the few moments of free time the kids could find between training and school. That was more Ibrahima’s style. He loved to joke with his teammates, especially his close friend Fallou Niang, a Senegalese midfielder from Thiès who was about half the size of the big striker. Ibrahima would often playfully slap him around in training, prompting laughs from the others.
Diawandou was much more serious and would stay in his room or sit with Senegalese members of the staff when he didn’t have somewhere to be. But Ibrahima would often seek him out for advice. “He knew I was his biggest brother,” said Diawandou. “He always came to ask me, ‘What are you going to do with the team? What are you going to do with the game tomorrow?’ ”
Ibrahima would share his thoughts as well, telling Diawandou what it was like to play in Italy and what to expect from Italian teams. But mostly he just listened and tried to follow Diawandou’s example. Ibrahima could have turned to the captain of his own class, Yobou Thome, a powerful central defender from the Ivory Coast. He was clearly talented and would go on to captain his country’s Under-17 national team. But they didn’t share the same bond. After all, Ibrahima and Diawandou were from the same country. They spoke the same language. They were brothers.
CHAPTER 8
Glory and Shame
As fellow countrymen, Diawandou and Ibrahima both dreamed of becoming Lions. While winning European tournaments with their academy classmates and beating top clubs in friendlies were gratifying accomplishments, making Senegal’s national team, the Lions of Teranga, meant even more. Getting a call-up was, of course, a matter of intense national pride. It also conferred special status at the academy. All the Football Dreams players considered themselves to be among Africa’s elite, but those tapped to represent their countries could hold their heads up that much higher.
Most important, though, making the national team was one of the best ways to attract the attention of scouts from the best clubs across Europe. These scouts didn’t usually spend their time traveling across Africa like Colomer looking for undiscovered talent. They preferred to skim off the top, and one of the ways they did that was by watching youth tournaments like the Under-17 World Cup that feature top national teams from across the globe. Within Africa, the premier tournament is the Africa Cup of Nations, which pits the continent’s best teams against each other every two years. Future African stars like Michael Essien from Ghana and John Obi Mikel from Nigeria went on to top European clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid after first shining for their youth national teams.
Diawandou and Ibrahima hoped to follow in their footsteps, and by the fall of 2010, they had taken a big step in that direction by becoming two of the most important players on Senegal’s Under-17 national team. Diawandou was the captain, and Ibrahima was the team’s leading goal scorer. There were plenty of other familiar faces around them as well, since the team contained nearly a dozen Football Dreams players, a remarkable number. That’s the kind of impact top academies at places like Barcelona and Ajax have had on the national teams in their countries after decades of building their programs and producing some of Europe’s biggest stars. A wave of Colomer’s recruits had made the jump less than three years after he selected the first Football Dreams class.
But making the national team was only one step toward impressing scouts from Europe’s top clubs at the Africa Cup of Nations. Senegal also had to qualify for the tournament, something the country’s Under-17 national team had never done before. Standing in their way was one of Africa’s traditional powerhouses, Ghana, which had won the tournament nearly two dozen times at the senior and junior levels. Senegal’s tally was zero. After playing a series of qualifiers against other nations, the Lions of Teranga were scheduled to compete against Ghana’s Black Starlets in a two-game playoff in November 2010. The winner would make it to the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Rwanda the following January.
Diawandou and Ibrahima had their work cut out for them. Not only did Ghana have an impressive track record, but the team also had its own reserve of Football Dreams players. They included the squad’s captain, Hamza Zakari, the temperamental defensive midfielder who was such close friends with Bernard in Doha. That meant it wasn’t just national pride on the line but also bragging rights when the players got back to the academy. “If you play against your teammates, it’s so difficult,” said Ibrahima. “If they win, you’re going to go back to the academy and have to keep quiet because they’re
going to talk!” Nobody wanted to end up second-best, and all of them were desperate to be the ones to showcase their skills for scouts in Rwanda come January. Their careers might depend on it.
Senegal’s coach, Boucounta Cissé, got his first glimpse of the talent Aspire had to offer before he took over the national team and was coaching a club in Senegal’s first division. Cissé was close friends with Babacar Ngom, the doctor who worked at Colomer’s academy and once told Ibrahima he was better off training in Senegal than Doha. The doctor helped arrange games between Cissé’s club and the academy teams, and he was blown away by the players’ skill. “As a coach, it was amazing to see them play,” said Cissé, who coached Senegal’s Under-20 national team in the 1990s. “During the game, we were really suffering. That’s how I knew there was a lot of quality on the team.” After Cissé became coach of the Under-17 team at the end of 2009, he brought a squad to the academy that was crushed 5-0 by the Football Dreams players in a match in which Ibrahima scored a hat trick. “Afterward, I asked how old the kids were,” said Cissé. “They told me they were under 17, and I said, ‘perfect.’ ”
He scooped up nearly a dozen Football Dreams players for his team. The decision was criticized by other academies in the country that were jealous more of their players didn’t make the cut. Cissé ignored the sniping and immediately appointed Diawandou captain. “Before I chose him as a player, when we played against Aspire, I saw that he was a leader on the field,” said Cissé. “He’s charismatic and has the character to lead the team.” The coach was also impressed by his passing game and his ability to bring the ball forward from the back. “His only handicap is his size,” said Cissé. “He’s not very tall for a central defender.” Diawandou topped out at around five feet, nine inches and had to compensate for his lack of height with superior defensive positioning and technical skill.
Diawandou (top right) and Ibrahima (top, third from right) with other members of Senegal’s Under-17 national team.
The coach definitely had no concerns about Ibrahima’s size. He was well over six feet at that point and would eventually grow to six feet, four inches tall. Some of his teammates called him Adebayor, after the big Togolese striker voted African Footballer of the Year in 2008. Ibrahima was the leading goal scorer in the initial qualifying rounds, notching five goals in four games against Liberia and Guinea to set up the playoff with Ghana. “He scored a lot of quality goals, not just with his head, but his feet as well,” said Cissé.
Ghana’s coach, Frimpong Manso, also relied on Football Dreams for players but not to the same extent as Senegal. It was more difficult for him to see the talent Aspire had to offer since the academy wasn’t based in Ghana. He first spotted Hamza when he took his Under-17 team to Aspire in Doha in the fall of 2009 to play against the kids there. “It was then that I realized Hamza was fantastic,” said Manso, a former player for Ghana’s national team. “I watched him and could see his sense of judgment, his understanding of the game, and his command on the field. His technical level was also very high.” Manso also liked the way Hamza directed teammates around the pitch, so he appointed him captain.
Another key Football Dreams player for Ghana was Samuel Asamoah, a small midfield playmaker with exquisite touch and vision. “To be frank with you, he was able to do anything with the ball,” said Manso. “His technical level was very, very high. He can control first touch, dribble, and the way he gives passes, I was surprised he could do a lot of things even the seniors couldn’t do.”
Samuel was one of Colomer’s favorites as well but almost missed out making it into the academy in Senegal because he was accidentally left off the list for the final tryout in Accra the first year. Colomer realized the mistake a couple days into the tryout, and the organizers rushed to Samuel’s home in one of Accra’s neighborhoods. But there wasn’t enough time left for him to participate. Colomer didn’t give up and lobbied Aspire to give him a place at the academy. “I said, ‘Look, I’m sure he’s among the best, but it was just a mistake he was not there,’ ” said Colomer. Aspire eventually agreed, and the Spanish scout returned to Ghana months after the tryout to find the little midfielder. Colomer only needed to watch him play for a few minutes to confirm he was as good as he initially thought and personally escorted him to Senegal.
Some were surprised there was a name missing from Ghana’s team: Bernard Appiah. In September 2010, several months after Bernard had returned from Doha for the last time, he heard his name announced over the radio as one of the players called into the national team camp to determine the Under-17 squad that would take on Senegal in November. Aspire said academy officials emailed the Ghana federation months earlier and recommended he be considered for the team. Bernard figured it was the best chance to bounce back from his departure from Aspire and attract attention from clubs in Europe.
Bernard’s old coach, Justice Oteng, took him to the location in Accra where the camp was being held, and the player stayed for several days, battling for his chance at redemption. But it didn’t come. Manso told Bernard he hadn’t made the squad, so he would have to return home, a crushing blow. The verdict shocked the team’s captain, Hamza, who was also at the camp training alongside his friend and former teammate. “I was very, very surprised because I know the quality of the players they were looking for, and Bernard had everything,” said Hamza.
Even the Ghana federation official responsible for overseeing the Under-17 team, Jordan Anagblah, was surprised by the decision, said Youssif Chibsah, a midfielder who played with Ghana’s senior team and tried to help Bernard after he returned home. Anagblah passed away in 2012, but Chibsah went to see him before that to speak about Bernard missing out on the national team. “He told me he was really surprised when the coach finally dropped him,” said Chibsah. “But that was the coach’s decision, and they didn’t want to interfere.”
Manso said he doesn’t even remember Bernard, even though he was on the list of players called into camp. The coach also saw him play against Ghana’s Under-17 team in Doha in 2009, when he said he first spotted Hamza. Bernard was sensational in the game and shredded the national team’s defense, as caught on the highlight video recorded by Aspire.
Bernard and Oteng are convinced the Football Dreams country director in Ghana, Andy Sam, intervened to make sure the player didn’t make the team because of the dispute with Aspire over his license. “I know Andy Sam influenced them because they are his people,” said Oteng, a reference to the director’s position on the federation’s youth committee. “That’s why Appiah was eliminated. He was far better than most of the players.” Sam denied the accusation and insisted he never spoke to Manso about Bernard. “Bernard went to the camp, and when he didn’t make the grade, he said I had convinced the president of the federation to kick him out,” said Sam.
In reality, not speaking to anyone about Bernard may have been enough to keep him off the team. The national team selection process in Africa is seen as notoriously corrupt, especially at the youth level, because of routine allegations that choices are influenced by connections and bribes rather than simply merit. The stakes are so high because of the chance to attract attention from Europe while playing for the team. For a player like Bernard who lacked an influential supporter in his camp after he left Aspire, it could be difficult to make the cut. That was much less of a problem for the Football Dreams players who continued to have the academy’s support. Qatar had amassed significant influence in the soccer world by that point, especially in Africa, through the millions of dollars it was spending on Football Dreams and its controversial quest to host the 2022 World Cup. The FIFA vote that produced Qatar’s unlikely victory took place only about a month after Senegal and Ghana took the field for the start of their two-game playoff.
The first leg took place at El Wak, a small, tired stadium in Accra owned by the Ghanaian army. Spectators had the choice of sitting in long rows of faded yellow plastic seats that lined one side of the pitch or standing on concrete terraces that ran down t
he other. The stadium is located across a busy road from the runway at Accra’s main airport, and passenger jets roar over the field when games are in progress.
Ghana was seen as the favorite, and the team’s coach, Manso, tried to psych up his players and the team’s fans by telling the media before the game he wanted Senegal “dead.” “We know Senegal will be tough customers, and that’s why we’re guarding against any form of complacency,” said Manso. “Hopefully we’ll . . . raise the flag of the country high.”
The first half was fairly even, akin to two boxers circling each other at the beginning of a prize fight, throwing the occasional jab and probing for a weakness. Ghana’s midfield playmaker, Samuel, sprayed passes in every direction, looking for a way through, but Diawandou kept his back line tight and the ball out of the back of the net. At the other end, Ibrahima used his size and strength to bully Ghana’s defenders in the box, but Hamza was just as effective in marshaling his troops to neutralize the big striker’s attacks, sending the game to halftime with the score 0-0.
The second half started in much the same fashion, but Ghana’s captain finally broke the stalemate in the 76th minute. Hamza stepped up and received a pass inside Senegal’s penalty box, composed himself, and unleashed a powerful shot along the ground that beat Senegal’s beanpole of a keeper, Babacar Niasse, also a Football Dreams player. Ghana’s players exploded in celebration and mobbed Hamza to congratulate him. Minutes later, the team doubled its lead when one of Hamza’s teammates smashed in a free kick. Senegal’s players could only shake their heads in frustration and disappointment. The game ended 2-0, leaving Senegal with a mountain to climb in the second leg if they hoped to make history and qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time.
The Away Game Page 15
