Legendary Ivorian football star, Didier Drogba, has warned young and aspiring African footballers about the dangers of exploitation and human trafficking.
The International Federation of Professional Footballers’ Associations (FIFPRO) and the Didier Drogba Foundation has lauched a campaign to raise awareness on this issue. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the risks facing young budding footballers hoping to realize their dreams of playing in the big leagues abroad.
The 2012 Champions League winner is leading a campaign to stop young African footballers from falling prey to fake agents. Stories like Abdulwasiu Abdrasaq’s remain all too common, but players aren’t the only ones at risk.
While browsing through Facebook, Abdulwasiu Abdrasaq saw an advert for Australian-based firm TalentBracket.net offering to make his dreams of playing profesional football in Europe possible. All he needed to do was enter his contact details, preferred playing position and country of interest — they would do the rest.
“After some few weeks, they sent me an email that my application was successful and Real Betis had chosen me,” the 19-year-old told reporters.
He was told that he would have an interview with their Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini via another scouting platform, CoachPad.net. A few days later, coach “Pellegrini” emailed him an attached sponsorship letter and asked that he pay €125 euros ($135) as counterpart funding while the club would cover the balance of €425 euros. He and his family raised the money and sent it through an online payments platform.
Weeks later, he was again asked to pay €250 for a work visa application while the club would cover the balance of €500 so he could visit Spain for trials. It was then he became suspicious and reached out to a local football players’ support platform, Footballers Connect, which looked through his correspondence with the club and confirmed his suspicions.
“They told me that I had been scammed,” said Abdrasaq. He is now concentrating on getting his degree in Mass Communication at Kwara State University while advising other young players to beware of platforms like TalentBracket.net and CoachPad.net. Both platforms did not respond when asked for comment by the reporters.
Unfortunately, few people are quick to realize they are being scammed.
