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George Weah, Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah – the list goes on in terms of African footballers who have dominated the footballing world landscape in the 21st century.
In what was originally a largely untapped area of the world footballing scene, there are an increasing amount of elite players coming from the continent now.
Opportunities had always been scarce for budding African footballers. After Egypt’s appearance at the 1934 World Cup, Morocco were the next African side to reach the globe’s biggest sporting event – in 1970.
Since then, countries have grown strong and superstars have begun to emerge; with Liberia-born Weah’s Ballon d’Or win in 1995 signalling a real breakthrough in terms of opportunities, image and leadership for many African footballers across the world.
Yet despite the stardom that comes from world-class players in the north and west, there remains a largely untapped area where little footballing success tends to come.
East Africa has undoubtedly produced some stars; former Tottenham star Victor Wanyama, Aston Villa’s Mbwana Samatta and Leicester goal machine Patson Daka have come to the fore in English football recently.
Wanyama made a combined 154 appearances for Southampton and Tottenham, Daka has scored nine goals in just 19 games for Leicester this season and was even linked with a move to Manchester United earlier in his career.
Patson Daka has set a precedent for Europe’s elite to sign talent from east Africa (Image: GETTY)
But they pale in comparison to the aforementioned world stars that hail from the west – something that ASCENT Soccer are aiming to change.
Joe Taylor, an ASCENT coach who has plied his trade in Malawi, believes that the eastern side of the continent is edging ever closer to a breakthrough in terms of talent becoming more prominent in the European game.
The company has camps in Uganda and Malawi, two vastly underdeveloped countries in the southeast region, where opportunities are afforded to players who may not have been able to play competitive football previously.
And Taylor thinks there has been a definite uprise in the representation of the sport even in the last two years.
“I believe there has, yes. A lot of the players you mentioned have come from west Africa, who have always had those powerhouse players – ones that have been household names in the Premier League such as Drogba, Michael Essien and Eto’o,” Taylor said exclusively to Express Sport.
“My experience has been in east Africa, where apart from Wanyama, Daka and Samatta, you don’t really hear of a lot of east African players playing in top European leagues.
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“In terms of talent, it is still rife. You only have to look at Sadio Mane, Naby Keita and all these talented Premier League players to understand that Africa is such a hotbed, yet a lot of the talent is so unharnessed out there.
“However, I do feel that is starting to change now. If you look at the Africa Cup of Nations, there are a few eastern teams progressing well.”
Taylor is right; Comoros miraculously advanced to the knockout stages of the tournament on their debut appearance, whilst Malawi were unfortunate to lose to a star-studded Morocco side in the last-16 – one that boasts European-based stars Achraf Hakimi, Yassine Bounou and Youssef En-Nesyri.
But there has only been one eastern side to have won the tournament since Sudan in 1970, with Zambia lifting the trophy in 2012.
And when asked if he thought AFCON had had an impact in Malawi and Uganda even over the last two weeks, Taylor unanimously agreed.
“Absolutely. The results alone tell you how far they have come as nations. I think the quality of the AFCON is still fairly decent – despite some of the amateurish refereeing over the last couple of weeks! – and that is something to build on,” he declared.
“The problem is trying to create the pathway. Those elite footballers have given such an inspiration by doing what they do, and even players such as Weah who have had a career in politics sends even more of a message.”
Weah is currently the president of Liberia, having assumed office in January 2018. His role not only as a footballer but as a figure of philanthropy has given inspiration to an entire continent – not just Liberians.
“It is absolutely huge,” Taylor continued. “That is one key message to the players that we constantly tell them – football is a very short career. It is a potential career that can be cut short as well through injury and unforeseen circumstances.
“You need to be in a position where you have other life skills, and in a position where you can offer a little bit more. We used to use Weah as an example – you can create a football player, and then that football has a voice for change in their home country.
“A lot of the kids wanted to build hospitals and the like, but you can only do that by having a voice. Football is something that can harness that; it is a route out of poverty for one, but it can also give you a little bit of power.
“The importance of developing the character is such a massive thing for us, giving them life skills to become more artistic, environmentally friendly, the list goes on – they do a fantastic job with that.”
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Taylor travelled to Malawi in 2019, but his stay was cut short by COVID-19 restrictions forcing him to return to England. However, even in the year-long period he was there and despite nurturing incredible young players, there were still a few factors that continued to throw spanners in the works – which implies that there is a major reason as to why the influx of east African players is particularly sparse.
“It came across as more of a challenge for me than it did the players,” Taylor admitted.
“Obviously, you can go down the route of ‘that is what the players have been used to for their whole careers’, but for me, the big challenge was the language barrier.
“Having a coach who has to go into using quick trigger words instead of longer explanations just makes it that bit harder – luckily enough I had a translator. The playing facilities – especially the away games – were dirt pitches, but we were lucky enough at ASCENT to have grown our own pitches.
“Some of the kids would have to play with one boot or even no boots. I’ve seen kids play in crocs and they’ve still managed to perform to an incredible standard! It really is remarkable. They are incredible athletes and unconditionally kind human beings. They didn’t make life hard for us at all.”
ASCENT have an affiliation with a sister company in Ghana called ‘Right to Dream’ – an academy that boasted a ten-year contract with English champions Manchester City, where they had the first choice of any promising player to come through the ranks.
Lovemore Mbeta (left) was one of two taken on trial at Spanish side Velez (Image: GETTY)
The Ghanaian talent factory has produced the likes of Ajax star Mohammed Kudus, ex-Porto winger Abdul Majeed Waris, MLS winner Emmanuel Boateng and Club Brugge midfielder Kamal Sowah, whilst Yaw Yeboah, Collins Tanor, Dominic Oduro and Mohammed Abu – amongst many others – all moved to the blue half of Manchester.
The impact of the club is so big that Danish side FC Nordsjaelland are also involved, bringing talent over to Denmark and even naming their stadium the ‘Right To Dream Park’.
However, the chances afforded to those in the eastern regions of Africa are nowhere near those in the western side – something ASCENT are looking to change.
“There are a handful of youth international players. Two players called Lovemore Mbeta and Festus Duwe – who are absolutely incredible – went to Sweden to play in the Gothia Cup and absolutely smashed it, earning trials at fourth division Spanish side Velez.
“Elsewhere, there are a couple of players who have gone to American high schools to gain scholarships, and a couple in the past had been linked with moves to Mallorca.
“It is difficult as there are some incredible talents that I believe would be playing for top clubs if they were living in Mallorca, Manchester or any other major European footballing city, at least in the academies.
“The problem for the clubs is that it isn’t worth bringing someone over from Africa when there is someone equally as good on their doorstep, especially in the pandemic.”
Those rules will apply for City, who have an abundance of homegrown talent in the form of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and James McAtee in just one position.
Yet despite the continuous improvement of the City Football Group – which boasts 11 clubs around the globe with the likes of Melbourne City FC, New York City FC and more – there surprisingly isn’t an African club under their control. Taylor believes it is only a matter of time before that is resolved in order to improve their foothold in the game.
“Definitely. You only have to look at the deal they had with Right to Dream, they know players are out there. Kelechi Iheanacho came from a Nigerian affiliation with Right to Dream, they rang City and said ‘you have to see this boy’,” he stated.
“There are clubs already looking out there in west Africa, but east Africa? I like to think it would happen even if it is a long time away, but I have no doubt about the talent that is there.”
And it isn’t just male football that ASCENT are looking to impact.
“A female player we had called Lughano Nyondo has an amazing story,” Taylor proudly said.
“We found her in a village trial, and originally her coach held her back. We would do open trials, but Malawian coaches tend not to bring their best players as they don’t want them to be poached by us. The manager didn’t let her out to play the trial, but one coach said that they’d have won if they had their best player.
Lughano Nyondo has been given life-changing opportunities to live in the USA (Image: GETTY)
“They brought her the day after, and she lit it up straight away. We took her on instantly, paid for a residential stay in Lilongwe (Malawi’s capital city) and a film crew came from Seattle who were filming about women’s representation in the game.
“The woman who was running the production fell in love with Lughano straight away, and asked us what she needed to do to get Lughano a scholarship straight away. She needed education, so an international school was imperative – and she paid the $7,500 fee straight away.
“Again, she smashed it straight away! Lughano did incredible at school, her football spoke for itself and in just a couple of years she was accepted onto a scholarship in America, where she has now been for three years.
“There is a lot more representation in the women’s game now than ever; I don’t want to stereotype, but Malawi perhaps has a culture of ‘women shouldn’t play as much football as the men do’.
“There are female strikers in the Chinese League who come from Malawi who earn around £4,000 per week; and alluding to what we said about Weah earlier, they give so much inspiration for players to go out and achieve their dreams.”
It really is a heartwarming story, with many being given the chance to one day appear on TV screens around the world as they look to make a name for themselves in European football. Perhaps one day, Taylor will look on with a proud tear in his eye as the first Malawian takes to the Premier League stage.
You can follow the story of many of ASCENT’s talents here.
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