After long months of investigation, the national police and the Portuguese Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) on June 12 rescued around 40 young people, including 36 minors, as part of an operation called “El Dourado”. The youth who are believed to be victims of human trafficking had been sequestered for years on the premises of the Bsports Football Academy, in the town of Riba de Ave, in the district of Famalicão, northern Portugal.

The Portuguese sports world is in shock. After the operation, authorities identified five suspects, including Mario Costa, president of the general assembly of the Portuguese football league and one of the most prominent figures in Portuguese football. The alleged traffickers transferred dozens of talents to Portugal, promising them a bright future and a professional career. The young people’s dream of becoming footballers quickly dissolved when they realized they had been trapped by con artists.

“This practice is typical in the football world. Large networks of human traffickers, often close to club leaders, federations or agents, work in an organized way to recruit, and then transfer thousands of young people mainly from Africa, but also from South America, to Europe. They achieve this by convincing the youth they could become professional footballers,” said Pedro Santos, of the Esperança association. The organization works with young underage migrants, including some of the minors previously at the Bsports football academy.

“Most worrying is the number of cases, which is constantly increasing. The smugglers and traffickers have no limits: they will try to recruit younger and younger people, and they seize their passports and identity papers in order to keep them at all costs,” he said. “The young people are then isolated and at the mercy of their traffickers.”

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‘The number of complaints is exploding’

Inspector Paulo P. of the Porto judicial police has been working on the Bsports football academy case for months. He confirmed the practice is becoming more and more frequent, with an increading number of complaints concerning cases of minors held against their will in football training structures. The authorities are trying to fight against this phenomenon despite limited means.

“The number of complaints has exploded over the past two years. We have already received around 400 to 500 complaints since the beginning of 2023. Some have led us to the Bsports football academy, but I think that this is only the visible part of the iceberg. The phenomenon of human trafficking in football is out of control, and we must protect the youth since they are vulnerable and [at risk of being] manipulated by criminals,” he said.

Abdou, from the dream of playing football to the Bsport academy ordeal

After being taken in by the Portuguese social services, the young footballers of the Bsport Academy are trying to rebuild a normal life after the ordeal they experienced in the private sports structure.

Abdou*, 17, from Guinea-Bissau, was recruited by an intermediary who picked him up in the capital to bring him to Portugal in the summer of 2021. Propelled by his dream of one day becoming a star at FC Barcelona, his favorite club, he played football in his neighborhood in Bissau. At the age of 14, he joined a local academy led by a Portuguese coach.

“After a few months, he told me that I had nothing to do here, and that I had to go to Europe to progress,” he said. “He went on to tell me about an academy in Portugal. He said he was on good terms with its management, and he later met with my parents so that I could travel and try to realize my dream,” said the adolescent.

The intermediary convinced Abdou and his parents, and managed to obtain a visa for Abdou for several months. The teenager began to imagine a brighter future for his family and himself. “I was full of enthusiasm, ready to give everything to work hard and make my family proud. Everyone contributed to paying for the plane ticket, but also for a sum which the coach asked us to pay to cover administrative costs for the visa. My parents took out a loan, and I found myself in northern Portugal in July 2021, when I was 15 years old,” he said.

‘Additional charges’

Once in the town of Riba d’Ave, at the Bsport Academy, Abdou met around fifty young people from Senegal, Guinea, Angola, Burkina Faso, but also from Colombia and Brazil. The first weeks went rather well, but the first worrying signs came in September.

“One of the directors came to see me one day to tell me I had to pay more money to stay, but I hadn’t been told about it before arriving” he says. “I thought there had been a mistake, but he asked me to contact my family to pay around €1000 in additional costs. I was very worried because it was a lot of money and I knew my parents were already in debt!” said Abdou.

His parents paid. Abdou continued training hard, and being given little to eat on some days, he did not complain. He spoke with some of his teammates and learned that some were under pressure from the coaches. They said they were insulted, with coaches criticizing their lack of energy and they said they had lost all confidence in themselves. Worse yet, the management had confiscated their passports and other identity documents, preventing the residents from traveling or seeing their families if the opportunity arose.

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‘An academy that resembled a prison’

“For months, the management prevented me from talking to my family. A cousin wanted to buy me a return ticket to Bissau for a few weeks to see my family, but I no longer had access to my passport. I realized I was trapped and that I had to leave the academy which was more like a prison than anything else,” said Abdou.

Abdou lost weight, he became depressed, and he looked for a way to escape with some of his companions. Until the day in mid-June, when the Portuguese police finally freed the 47 young people from the trafficker’s yoke.

“I saw the light at the end of the tunnel! I spent almost two years in this mess, and I could not see an end to it. Now I have to rebuild myself and to try to live a normal life, and maybe become a footballer, if the opportunity presents itself,” he said, smiling. “But I also want my experience to be of some use, for the story to be publicized in order to fight against these criminal practices. Lives are destroyed, dreams are shattered, young people and their families are exploited. It is inhumane and everything must be done to prevent it from happening,” he added.

*Name has been changed for security reasons

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