Samuel West

Iris -- Trailer

As the world turns its attention to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, the focus will be on many of the brightest stars in soccer like Chelsea players Didier Drogba (first) and Michael Essien and Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o. In this episode of Vanguard, Mariana van Zeller explores the dark side to the sport's global popularity; what has been called 'the new slave trade.' As more and more money flows into professional European soccer leagues, the demand for young West African players 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. Mariana retraces the journey that these West African players often take in their quest to make it big in Europe. On the dirt fields of Ghana, she spends a week with a youth coach hungry to sell his players. In the slums of Morocco, she meets a growing community of West African players abandoned by agents who promised them professional contracts with European teams. And in Paris she witnesses how these trafficked players get forced underground, living illegally and putting their last hopes in shady, black market games where the best players compete for the attention of the agents and managers in attendance. The journey is full of heartbreak but along the way Mariana also meets a handful of individuals fighting for change, most notably the director of a soccer academy in rural Ghana called Right to Dream.

In this scene from the new Vanguard documentary 'Soccer's Lost Boys,' correspondent Mariana van Zeller goes undercover to explore the last, desperate hope of young West African players living illegally in Paris: a pick-up game with sketchy middle-men who try to sell the players to outside agents. 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.' 'Soccer's Lost Boys' airs Wednesday, June 16 at 10/9c. Watch a trailer here: http://current.com/shows/vanguard/blog/92469686_soccers-lost-boys-world-cup-dreams-and-nightmares.htm '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. For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.