tagged w/ soccer jersey
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As South Africa hosts the 2010 World Cup, the focus will be on many of the continent's brightest stars in soccer, including Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o. In "Soccer's Lost Boys," correspondent Mariana van Zeller explores the dark side to the sport's global popularity, what has been called "the new slave trade."
The demand for young West African players in professional European soccer leagues has skyrocketed--and so has the number of unlicensed agents, illegitimate soccer academies, and shady middlemen looking to exploit these players. For a very small percentage of these West African youngsters, their dreams of playing professionally in Europe come true. The rest face a litany of horrors: deadly Mediterranean crossings, broken promises, vanishing agents, brutal living conditions, and families torn apart. It's estimated that 20,000 young African soccer players are now stranded in Europe. Many more never even make it that far and remain stuck in transit in port towns across Africa.
"Soccer's Lost Boys" airs Wednesday, June 16 at 10/9c. For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.As South Africa hosts the 2010 World Cup, the focus will be on many of the... more
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