Mission 89, in partnership with Loughborough University and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK branch (CPA UK), has released the first-ever comprehensive Global Thematic Report on Sport Trafficking, presenting a rigorous academic and policy-oriented analysis of human trafficking within the global sports ecosystem.

The report integrates a comprehensive literature review, interdisciplinary expert consultations, forensic analysis of documented trafficking incidents, comparative international policy assessment, including contributions from global experts. While highlighting the economic benefits of the sports industry, which is estimated to be between $471 billion and $1.4 trillion annually, the report sheds light on how this lucrative industry has become a magnet for traffickers exploiting vulnerable individuals, particularly young athletes from the Global South.

According to industry stakeholders, the absence of a specific definition for ‘sport trafficking’ has presented significant challenges in distinguishing the phenomenon from migrant smuggling, irregular migration, and other forms of human trafficking, thereby preventing targeted Interventions. In addition, the US Department of State has identified significant regulatory gaps within sport governing bodies. Even established regulations, such as FIFA’s prohibition on international transfers of minors, have revealed numerous loopholes and enforcement challenges.

The report introduces a scholarly and precise definition of sport trafficking, referred to as a systematic process of recruiting and exploiting individuals within the sporting domain, characterised by coercive mechanisms that compromise individual autonomy and fundamental human rights. It not only involves the direct exploitation of athletes but also extends to the myriad ways through which the industry can serve as a conduit for labour and sexual exploitation, especially during mega sporting events which attract increased demand for informal labour and entertainment services (that may involve trafficking for sexual exploitation).

For Dr Serhat Yilmaz, the Lead Researcher of the report and Senior Lecturer in Sports Law at Loughborough University, it is quite straightforward. “Without a precise, sport-specific definition of trafficking, we are dealing with inadequate legal protections, ineffective policy development, challenges in identifying and supporting victims, limited prevention strategies, and blurred legal distinctions that allow perpetrators to escape accountability. Therefore, our objective is to bring sport trafficking out of the shadows and into focused, actionable legal and social frameworks”, he explained.

The report also presents a typology of sport trafficking supported by case studies that are identified and developed through the research. This typology of sport trafficking, as another novel aspect of the document, provides an overview of the different types of trafficking evident in, through, and around sports. In each case, the existence of the type of trafficking is determined by the presence of the necessary constituent elements of the trafficking crime as per the definition of the UN Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Protocol.

“Aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 8.7 and 16.2, the research provides a foundational scholarly contribution to understanding and mitigating trafficking vulnerabilities”, said Lerina Bright, Executive Director, Mission 89. “With a clear and specialised definition, we can provide clearer legal frameworks, guide more effective policymaking, improve victim support mechanisms, enable more targeted educational efforts and help the judiciary better recognize and address these specific trafficking cases.”

The report recommends that legislators and parliamentarians develop and implement domestic anti-trafficking laws that align with the TIP Protocol and relevant regional instruments. It advocates for a ‘non-punishment’ provision to protect trafficking victims, particularly migrant athletes, from criminal prosecution for actions stemming from their trafficking experiences. Experts also advocated for the introduction of a new recognised form of exploitation encompassing severe forms of economic exploitation in order to provide stronger protection for vulnerable athletes.

Policymakers should also adjust immigration frameworks for athletes to reduce trafficker exploitation opportunities and ensure recruitment follows international best practices for labour rights. In addition, building capacity through targeted training for identifying sport trafficking and improving data collection will be essential for raising awareness and addressing this critical issue.

The report identifies a range of different areas for improvement in efforts to combat sport trafficking and more effectively protect vulnerable athletes and aspiring athletes. They are consolidated as a set of recommendations for policymakers, law enforcement, prosecutors, the judiciary, service providers, and sport organisations. In this respect, the insight of this report, typologies, and interpretive guide provide support and guidance for these actors in pursuing the recommendations and supporting anti-trafficking efforts.

Accessibility and Engagement

• Full Report: Available for download on Mission 89’s website
• Academic Inquiries: globalreport-ST@mission89.org

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Sport organisations can play a key role in affecting meaningful change on this problem, leading awareness and advocacy and making a statement of no tolerance for human trafficking in and through sport. The seriousness of this issue is evident through the sport regulations that have been implemented in the last two decades, which aim to prevent this kind of abuse and exploitation. For example, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance of the Olympic and Sports Movement, prohibits exploitation of young athletes and explicitly states that for protecting athletes:

• Measures should be taken to prohibit exploitation of young athletes
• Athletes should be protected from unscrupulous recruiters and agents
• Cooperation with the government of the countries concerned should be developed
• Codes of conduct should be signed by all sport organisations

Sport organisations have become accustomed to the phrase ‘creating a culture of safety’ so often that sometimes the phrase can lack meaning or mean nothing more than a box-ticking exercise that ensures the required policies are in place. Creating a culture of safety means embedding safeguarding into everything an organisation does. In view of this, Mission 89 provides sport organisations with 5 recommendations comprising crucial actions and steps to take the collective fight against human trafficking in sport to the next level in 2021.

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Mission 89 in collaboration with the Sport Journalists Association of the Gambia (SJAG) on Saturday 16th January, organised an 8-kilometre Media Run Against Trafficking in Sport in The Gambia. The event, which started and ended at the Traffic Lights in Banjul, attracted over 200 people from diverse sectors of society. The President of SJAG, Musa Sise, serving as event MC, read a statement on behalf of Mission89. He thanked Mission 89 for the partnership and emphasised the need for the media to be at the forefront of the challenges in sport, such as human trafficking.

Addressing the participants before the warm-up, the Minister for Youth and Sport, Mr. Bakary Badjie praised Mission 89 and SJAG for the first of its kind awareness raising campaign, commending the impressive turn-out. Mr. Badjie said, “we were not even thinking about human trafficking in sport, we were thinking about human trafficking in other areas”. He emphasised that Mission 89 and SJAG has stimulated government through the Ministry to take up the issue with other stakeholders in the sport sector, at other levels, to prevent young Gambians from falling prey of trafficking in sport.

Minister for Youth and Sport of the Gambia, Bakary Badjie being interviewed during the run.

Diverse voices of stakeholders
The Run attracted a large turn-out of enthusiastic key stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Participants came from a wide range of institutions such as the National Agency Against Trafficking in Person, the Gambia Immigration Department, International Organization for Migration country office, African Legal Charter, the National Youth Council, National Sports Council, the Gambia Football federation, among others. Other participants included the Walk for Health team, members of the local media and SJAG executives, Businessmen, and Diaspora Gambians. Banka Manneh, a prominent online platform host on holidays from the USA expressed his enthusiasm on joining the campaign. “I had seen the pictures on facebook and I said, I want to be part of this to sensitise and educate our population on this issue!”

Participants who took part in the run came from diverse sectors of the society to show support to what is considered an innovative idea initiated by Mission89 and the SJAG partnership.

Breaking the silence
According to participants, the event inspires better understanding and discussions into the topic as related to the local set up and understanding. “Trafficking in sport is luring someone into something they don’t know” added a former youth coach and journalist trainer Sang Mendy. Adding, “it is important to sensitise the young ones and the parents. Most of the parents are not aware of the danger their children could be going through and it is important to sensitise these people too”. He continued, “most parents are really involved in the football trials of their children but little are they aware of the existence of fake agents and individuals who disguised on the promise of helping to get the breakthrough”. The event also serves as a wake-up call for the sport sector to scrutinise its means to strengthen the sports structures and make it economically viable for young athletes to participate. The Communications Officer of the Gambia Football Federation, Baboucarr Camara highlighted that as the custodians of football in the country, more work needed to be done with clubs in this respect to ensure that agents coming into the country are scrutinised.

In his closing remarks the President of the SJAG, emphasised that the intention is not just to organise the event and stop there, but for other organizations and individuals to take up the issue from Mission 89 and SJAG collaboration in order to stop the menace in the country.

The Executive Director of the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (NAATIP), Tulia Jawara and the President of the Sport Journalists Association (SJAG), Musa Sise.

The first step into the country-strategy
The Media Run is the first of a series of events Mission 89 lined-up to raise awareness in collaboration with the sports press in the West African country with over 2 million inhabitants. Other events planned include a virtual roundtable to take place on 21st January at 16h00 GMT, a training programme for sport journalists on human trafficking in sport, among others.

The Gambia has become a hub for sex trafficking, child labour and illegal migration. In 2016, a first division club in the national football league, Banjul United, lost 25 of its players through illegal migration in the Mediterranean sea. A national wrestler Ali Mbengu (Mil Franc) and national female footballer Fatim Jawara both lost their lives at sea trying to cross to Europe.

Watch the Media Run here.

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The inclusion marks the end of a successful month for Mission 89, following fruitful round table discussions in conjunction with Istanbul Bilgi University and SOAS University of London.

The “Human Trafficking of Athletes” section of the document (p.26-27) outlines the mechanisms through which athletes are misled, as well as the dangers faced by victims worldwide. Trafficking in European football is given particular focus through a case study of FIFA’s player recruitment regulation, and most importantly, the segment concludes with a lengthy discussion of the meaningful changes that need to be made to address the issue. Suggestions include greater due diligence on agents, increased coordination between governmental youth services and sports services, and nationwide public awareness initiatives.

Lerina Bright, Executive Director of Mission 89 welcomes the greater exposure of trafficking in sport, saying “We at Mission 89 are continually advocating for this issue to receive greater public attention, and it is encouraging that the US State Department’s Report has acknowledged the dangers facing vulnerable athletes worldwide due to the prevalence of trafficking.”

The US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2020 is the “world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-trafficking efforts”, and can be found here.

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On June 9th, Mission ‘89 and Istanbul Bilgi University, jointly hosted a virtual round table that discussed “the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions imposed on the lives of migrant footballers in Istanbul”. The round table, co-moderated by Mission ‘89 Board Member, Yann Coelenbier and Faculty Member of the Sport Management Department at the Istanbul Bilgi University, Dr. Ilknur Hacisoftaoglu, invited experts from the fields of journalism, academia and city management to collectively address the difficulties faced by migrant athletes and victims of football trafficking in Istanbul, while encouraging cooperation and action at the institutional level.

Mr. Coelenbier outlined the importance of understanding the perspectives of both athletes and relevant stakeholder institutions, while encouraging a climate of cooperation and collective action, noting that “there is no one road to migration in sports. Every athlete has different motivations – but most importantly, they want to contribute and build a better future”.

In exploring the lived experiences of Istanbul’s migrant footballers, Dr. Hacisoftaoglu, who has been studying the topic for the past year, was clear in her assessment that “we have a problem in sports, particularly in football; the scale of the industry has made it a common destination for migrant footballers around the world”.

Head of the African Community in Turkey, Julius Kugor, pointed to lack of job prospects, as well as recent regulations in the lower levels of Turkey’s football pyramid as particularly troubling developments for migrant footballers. “Two years ago the Turkish Football Federation ruled that foreigners cannot play in the 4th and 5th division, so it has become very tough for migrant players”, he said.

Bagis Erten, Journalist & Production Manager at Eurosport, was less optimistic in his outlook for migrant football players in the wake of COVID-19, pointing out that uncertain financial health in the lower divisions is likely to make the protection of migrant athletes a low priority. He was of the view that “the only hope for migrant athletes must come from civic society, as the football industry’s agenda will be too loaded to consider anything else”.

At the institutional level, however, there appears to be enthusiasm for action. According to Coordinator of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Migration Unit, Simten Birsoz, they have expanded basic protection services to migrants in the city (providing nearly

8000 support packages thus far), while they continue to assess their action plan, which involves “creating harmonization opportunities between migrants and host communities and making municipal activities inclusive to migrants, including recreational sports funding”.

There was acknowledgment that those at the top of the Turkish football pyramid also have their part to play, through lobbying and public awareness campaigns. “Galatasaray are not part of the problem, but we can be part of the solution”, stated Istanbul Bilgi University Professor and Galatasary S.K. Board Member Emre Erdogan.

Mission89 Board Member Yann Coelenbier, ended the round table by emphasizing the power of cooperative discussions in tackling societal problems facing migrant athletes. “Cooperation is to create empowerment. We have clubs with resources, we have municipalities with the capacity to integrate and recognize, and we have athletes who wish to take action,” he concluded.

Media Contact:

Media@mission89.org

gizem.kulekcioglu@bilgi.edu.tr

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Ode, the new addition to our family, is the first personality to sign up to the Mission 89 Ambassador Programme.

Ode Fulutudilu’s journey from refugee to professional footballer is truly remarkable and is inspirational to young athletes all around the world. Fleeing from a civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and taking refuge in South Africa at a young age with her family, her determination and passion for football won her a scholarship to study in the United States and to play professionally in Europe.

As Mission 89 Ambassador, Ode will work as a delegate of our organization by using her name, voice and platform to reach the hearts and minds of the vulnerable, raising awareness and fighting against human trafficking in and around sport.

QUOTES

“We are delighted to welcome Ode Fulutudilu to Mission 89. Our Ambassador Programme seeks to engage social change makers around the world to combat trafficking in the name of sport. Ode’s interest in social justice issues and education, are very much aligned with ours. Her journey, background, and personality are something that younger generations can learn from and admire.”

Lerina bright – Executive Director, Mission 89

“I am incredibly humbled to be representing such an organization that is bringing a light to a problem that not many people think of, or associate with, sports. Human trafficking in the world of sport has gone unnoticed and unchecked for many years because not enough people talk about it. I hope to help bring awareness to the exploitation that sometimes occurs when young people want to go into sport, and in doing so help develop people’s knowledge and awareness about the issue.”

Ode Fulutudilu – Forward, Aland United & Mission 89 Ambassador

QUICK FACTS

• In 2014, after graduating from Lee University in Tennessee, Ode was called up to Banyana Banyana, the South Africa Women’s National Football Team.
• In 2018, she scored 15 goals in 22 games playing for ONS Oulu Women in Finland’s Naisten Liiga, earning the title of the club’s top goal scorer.
• In 2019, she signed for Spanish Primera division side Malaga CF Femenino, becoming the first South African player to play football in a Spanish top division.
• In 2020, Ode Fulutudilu joined Aland United in Finland. She also hosts a podcast ‘And She Plays’, to encourage and motivate future and present female football players.

Mission 89 Ambassador Programme

The Mission 89 Ambassador Programme is a social influencing and community outreach initiative that uses the positive values of sport to raise awareness of human trafficking within the context of sport. The Ambassador role is assigned to high-profile personalities who have been thoroughly appraised and selected by the organization.

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The complete reform package is a product of an extensive consultation process with many relevant stakeholders, and includes the six following measures:

1. Establishment of a cap on commissions to avoid excessive and abusive practices;
2. Limitation of multiple representation to avoid conflicts of interest;
3. Reintroduction of a mandatory licensing system for agents to raise professional standards;
4. Creation of a FIFA Clearing House to guarantee better financial transparency;
5. Establishment of an effective FIFA dispute resolution system to address disputes between agents, players and clubs;
6. Disclosing and publishing all agent-related work in transfers, to increase transparency, improve the credibility of the transfer system and support the implementation of new regulations.

Mission 89 welcomes the new regulations as they aim to improve the professional standards of agents and protect the wellbeing and rights of the minors involved in football. These regulations are not specifically designed to prevent the trafficking of children in and through football, rather they attempt to bolster the transparency of transactions and prevent fraud and money laundering in football. However, it is through the reintroduction of the mandatory agents’ licensing system that these measures also provide a useful tool for holding agents accountable for potential abuse of minors in their care. This not only speaks to the issue trafficking in football but also provides the international community an important opportunity to propose complimentary measures to expand protections for the youth.

To this end, Mission 89 believes that the following complimentary educational and technological measures could potentially create an even more robust regulatory system that addresses and tackles child trafficking in football:

1. Establishment of a mechanism that also hold clubs accountable for transactions involving agents and minors to ensure that all parties prioritise the interest and safety of the child;
2. An Evidence-based Special Safeguarding and Child Protection Education for Clubs, Players and Parents on how to deal with agents;
3. Include modules in FIFA’s new regulation of football agents’ 2020 curriculum to educate coaches and technical staff about safeguarding and child protection issues, and to certify their training;
4. Establishment of accountability mechanism that make agents and clubs more accountable for players aged 18 years and/or under, who fail their trials at clubs;
5. Granting better access to information for professional and amateur players with the use of easily accessible technology (apps or websites);
6. Organise and/or support promotional activities during large events that inform on human trafficking and the risk of exploitation by fake agents at grassroots/recreational level; and
7. Development of a harmonized FIFA dual-career program that empowers players (amateur and professional) with capacities that will serve them beyond the Game, thereby minimising the opportunity for exploitation.

Written by: Faisal Paktian

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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the standard-bearer for all issues pertaining to the rights of children especially in countries where the legally-binding agreement has been ratified.  Article 19 UNCRC explicitly requires children to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse. Despite this, scholars such as Donnelly (2008) argue that currently, children remain the major class of persons who have enjoyed almost no increase in human rights in general, or in sport.

Football is a prime example of this. The lure of the Big 5 European leagues has increasingly led to the migration of young footballers from developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. For every young footballer who “makes it” in Europe, there are a great number who not only fail to make the grade, but often fall into the wrong hands, and are subsequently left abroad and desolate.

Lionel Messi, arguably the most talented footballer of his generation, left Argentina for Barcelona at the tender age of 13 and reached super-stardom within a few years. In contrast, it is estimated that 15,000 young players are moved out of West Africa every year on false pretenses of fame in European football, but due to the lack of monitoring the number could be much larger in actuality (Poli, 2010). These young African footballers often end up being exploited by unscrupulous traffickers, ending up worse off than they were when they left their home countries.

In order for state actors, governing bodies and NGOs to counteract this phenomenon, it is critical that the push and pull factors of a young footballer’s decision to leave home in search of a football career in Europe is well investigated and understood.

Bogus agents and “talent scouts”

Recently, FIFPro warned footballers about criminals posing as player agents on LinkedIn. Several players informed FIFPro about their experiences with a person named Steve Mac Hughes who they say deceived them by promising trials or contracts with clubs in the United Kingdom and Asia. In short, this person approached them via LinkedIn, said that a club was interested and that he would arrange a trial or a contract if the player first signed with him and paid a fee. None of the players spoke with or saw the person; they communicated with the “agent” via LinkedIn and WhatsApp. After they sent the money through a Western Union account, the person broke off all contact. This phenomenon is particularly widespread in the many “football factories” all across the African and South American continents.

Money talks

Research conducted by Prof. James Esson (2015:521) of Loughborough University on the migration of young African footballers to Europe found that many of them believed that a career in professional football and migration to a league outside of Africa is a realistic career-decision in order to lift an individual and therefore vicariously their family out of poverty. This is seen as a hugely significant factor that lures impoverished and often desperate young footballers into migrating to Europe by any means necessary, playing into the exploitative hands of traffickers and fraudulent agents.

Easy as that

The global image of successful athletes, who mostly ply their trade overseas, creates a desire among the youth to also elevate their standards as well as whet their hopes and appetite for “success”. Hence, globalised societies and the immense influence of social media have created the illusion that success in football or sports in general is a given, as long as an individual has talent and the right work ethic.

For example, Poli (2006) conducted a survey with the Ivorian Under-17 national team, where 18 of the 23 players he asked said that, once in Europe, finding a professional club to play for would be easy. Such optimism was not shared by their team’s trainer who felt that only three or four of them had the requisite talent to breakthrough in Europe. For many talented young boys and girls around the world, any career pathway that offers hope for breaking out of poverty is worth the attempt.

“Cultural placement”

‘Cultural placement’ is a reciprocal arrangement where a young person leaves his immediate family and is placed in the care of an individual or household, with their labour offered in exchange for education and/ or training, as well as his means of subsistence. For instance in Benin, there exists a local tradition of “vidomegon,” where village children work as servants to wealthy urban families in return for education and training. This often extends to families sending their children to acquaintances who are not well-known in Europe, in the hope that their children have better life chances in the “western world” (Manzo, 2005). False promises of reciprocity and return are an increasingly common theme in the migration of young footballers from developing nations into Europe.

There is certainly some evidence to argue that societies where “cultural placement” is standard practice seem to be susceptible to football migration.

References:

1. Donnelly, P. (2008). Sport and human rights. Sport in Society, 11(4), 381-394.
2. James Esson (2015) Better Off at Home? Rethinking Responses to Trafficked West African Footballers in Europe, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41:3, 512-530, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2014.927733
3. Manzo, K. (2005). Exploiting West Africa’s children: trafficking, slavery and uneven development. Area, 37(4), 393–401.doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2005.00644.x
4. Poli, R. (2010). Understanding globalization through football: The new international division of labour, migratory channels and transnational trade circuits. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 45(4), 491-506.
5. Taylor, M. (2006). Global players? Football, migration and globalization, c. 1930-2000. Historical social research, 31(1), 7-30.
6. Poli, R. (2006). Migrations and trade of African football players: historic, geographical and cultural aspects. Africa Spectrum, 393-414.

The writer, John Luke Chua, is a Graduate Research Assistant at Mission 89.

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The progress shown by African national teams in international competitions since the 1990s as well as the outstanding careers of African football icons such as Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Nwankwo Kanu, to name a few, has fueled the desire of thousands of young West Africans to try to make it to “the top”.

While some footballers have been able to follow in their more famous predecessors’ footsteps, a disturbing by-product of this fascination with Europe’s football leagues has also been on the rise. This worrying phenomenon is known as “football trafficking” – for a more comprehensive definition of the term, see Esson and Drywood (2018).

The growth of African football has not gone unobserved. This has triggered a reaction, some clubs have been looking out for younger and younger “raw” talents to be “purchased” at a low cost, with the hope of turning them into established players to be sold at a higher price thus generating a big profit. On the other hand, the number of aspiring footballers craving to pursue a professional career in European football has also dramatically increased. Unfortunately, this demand and supply situation has created thriving grounds for exploitation of young talent.

Alarmed by the “race to young talent”, national and international institutions and sports governing bodies have taken restrictive measures. For example, FIFA introduced Article 19 of its Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, which states that international transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18, unless their parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons unrelated to football, the player is aged at least 16 and the transfer happens within the European Union or the player lives no further than 50km from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighbouring association is also within 50km of that border.

The goal of Article 19 is to put a limit to the frequent cases of fraud and abandonment linked with the movement of underage players as outlined in the “10 step guide to football trafficking” (Esson 2015).

Playing football at the best possible stage – Europe – per se is not the only motivation drawing large numbers of would-be footballers from the Global South. Research conducted on over 100 underage Ghanaian footballers revealed that they viewed migrating to a well-paid European league, where a player would get the maximum return on their ability, as the embodiment of self-reliance and entrepreneurialism (Esson and Drywood: 2018).

In other words, football is seen as a way of improving families’ social and economic status, a situation that is mostly perceived as impossible to achieve by staying in the country of origin.

Global South to North migration does not only pertain to football, although research in other sports is lacking.

With the aim to finding a way to balance two fundamental principles of the Convention on the Right of the Child, i.e adherence to the best interests of the child and the child’s right to participate in decisions regarding their future, further research into the migration of youth related to sports is needed as well raising the awareness of all the players involved, two activities in which Mission 89 has always been fully engaged in order to tackle the issue of the exploitation of young athletes.

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But wherever there are ambitions and aspirations there are also ruthless individuals ready to exploit those young dreamers. They claim to be football agents with contacts in Europe, approach kids who dream to play in Europe and ask for money from them or their family with the promise that they will arrange the documents needed and a trial at a professional club. However, when the youngster reaches the destination, if they do, the trial does not happen and, in the worst case scenario, the player is abandoned.

In other cases, the scammer keeps the money and disappears even before the journey to Europe takes place, as Daniel Saleh Iko, a 19-year-old Nigerian footballer, learnt the hard way. He has courageously decided to share his unfortunate experience with Mission 89 in this interview.

“I come from Kogi State, a central region of Nigeria, and have always wanted to become a footballer. I’ve played for local professional teams and I’m still playing and training hard as I don’t want to give up on my dream.

Not long ago, a man who claimed to have contacts in European football approached me saying that I was too good for the league where I’m playing. He added I should consider moving to a more ambitious stage. He said if I or my family had managed to put together about $ 3,500 for the expenses needed, he would provide me with some good opportunities to play professionally in Europe”

Fortunately for Daniel, soon afterwards he met trafficking survivor & Mission 89 Ambassador Matthew Edafe, who gave him some advise.  

Talking to Matthew helped me open my eyes. First of all he gave me a lot of encouragement and support. Then he made me understand the reality of that offer. He explained to me that when a real agent sees talent in a player, and if he really believes in that talent, he will be ready to invest rather than asking for money in advance because he’s confident that one day, when a proper contract is signed, he will get his own commission from the club. On the contrary, somebody bragging to have contacts at high level  in professional football and wanting to be given money even before a contract or a trial in Europe was not to be trusted.

In this instance, Daniel managed to keep the fake agent at bay but he had been less successful on another occasion two years earlier.

I was only 17 and all I wanted to do was to have a chance, so when a man promised he’d give me a chance to play for Newcastle United, I wanted to grab it. He was also asking for $ 2,000. My family managed to borrow that amount by asking several people if they could lend us some money. The idea was that if I had been able to play in Europe I definitely would have been able to pay back the loan and also support my sister who is still studying… But unfortunately it was a scam, and, while we lost all that money, I never had the opportunity to move to England.

It was a hard blow, both financially and psychologically.

It was such a bad moment for me and my family as it made our financial situation even shakier than it already was. I was so desperate I even attempted to take my own life and even now, when I think about it, I get frustrated and end up crying. But I don’t want to give up and I am going to train as hard as I can to make it to the top.

Thanks to Daniel, for speaking up. Painful as sharing this experience may have been, we are hopeful that through this, other young aspiring footballers will learn and make informed decisions about their career in and out of football.

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