The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstars

by Sebastian Abbot

Over the past decade, an audacious program called Football Dreams has held tryouts for millions of 13-year-old boys across Africa looking for soccer’s next superstars. Led by the Spanish scout who helped launch Lionel Messi’s career at Barcelona and funded by the desert kingdom of Qatar, the program has chosen a handful of boys each year to train to become professionals—a process over a thousand times more selective than getting into Harvard.


In The Away Game, reporter Sebastian Abbot follows a small group of the boys as they are discovered on dirt fields across Africa, join the glittering academy in Doha where they train, and compete for the chance to gain fame and fortune at Europe’s top clubs. We meet Diawandou, a skilled Senegalese defender whose composure makes him a natural leader on the field; Hamza, a midfielder from Ghana with great talent but a mercurial personality to match; Ibrahima, a towering striker who scores goals by the bucketload; Serigne Mbaye, who glides by players effortlessly but happens to be deaf; and Bernard, often the smallest kid on the field but a sublime playmaker who invites constant comparison to Messi.


Abbot masterfully weaves together the dramatic story of the boys’ journey with an exploration of the art and science of trying to spot talent at such a young age. As in so many other sports, data analytics in soccer have expanded in the wake of Moneyball, with scouts employing more sophisticated metrics like "expected goals" and tracking data to judge players. But, as The Away Game chronicles, soccer genius depends more on intangible qualities like "game intelligence" than on easily quantifiable ones.


Richly reported and deeply moving, The Away Game is set against the geopolitical backdrop of Qatar’s rise from an impoverished patch of desert to an immensely rich nation determined to buy a place on the international stage. It is an unforgettable story of the joy and pain these talented African boys experience as they chase their dreams in a dizzying world of rich Arab sheikhs, money-hungry agents, and soccer-mad European fans.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Soccer, Football, Africa, Audiobook

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2018

About the author

Sebastian Abbot worked for the Associated Press in Cairo and Islamabad, where he was bureau chief. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He lives in New York.

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not a soccer fan but enjoyed this book immensely. I read it over a weekend and literally could not put it down. It’s like a soccer-themed combination of Hoop Dreams and Moneyball with a global angle. But you don’t need to be a soccer fan to enjoy it, just like you don’t need to be a fan of rowing to enjoy The Boys in the Boat or football to enjoy The Blind Side.

The Away Game tells a complex and nuanced story. The characters each have very human goals, desires, personalities, strengths and shortcomings. This is not a cliche of the rich selfishly exploiting the poor. Neither is it a tale of selfish, self-centered sports stars.

Sebastian Abbot's account is balanced, deeply reported and faithful to the facts. It is also full of heart. He clearly cares about the prospects, the players, the Aspire backers, organizers, and coaches. He cares about those who love the game and tried any way they could to rise farther and higher than anyone in their circumstance would think possible.

What emerges is a lot more gray than black and white. The combination of sports, culture, economics and politics makes this a book about human dreams that plays out on the fields of the world's most popular sport. The motives for identifying and nurturing the best soccer talent in Africa are both noble and self-serving. The pursuit of big time professional sports is both inspiring and heartbreaking. Ultimately, we as humans are both wonderful and arrogant to dream and try to make our dreams come true.

While rich in nuance and complexity, the story is presented in a clear, logical structure. The writing is effectively descriptive and straightforward. The progression of events is presented in a way that draws you in and keeps you wanting to know what happens next. There is sufficient technical information that someone totally naive to the world of soccer cannot just follow along but be drawn in to the drama. Abbot is clearly a talented writer who knows very well how to tell a very engaging story.

I highly recommend this book to soccer fans and sports fans, but moreover anyone who is interested in human stories of how people seek to make their dreams come true.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like Hoop Dreams for African soccer. Except throw in Qatari millions and Nigerian warlords and sometimes it makes you feel like you're reading a scene from some political thriller instead.

In 2007, a Qatari billionaire bankrolls a continent wide search for the best soccer players in Africa. The former youth director of FC Barcelona, Josep Colomer, spearheads this 'Football Dreams' program in what becomes the largest sports talent search in history. Only the most talented boys on the continent get picked to train at Aspire Academy. The ultimate goal: become a pro in Europe.

I knew how this story ended before it began. Anyone who knows anything about the difficult road to becoming a professional athlete does too. But how it gets there is like witnessing a train veer off the tracks in slow motion.

What Sebastian Abbot does so well is to paint the picture on a macro and micro scale. The cast of characters is huge. The interests of governments, clubs, coaches, and agents often collide and pull individual players in a hundred different directions. He conveys the personalities, talents, and dreams of each of the Aspire Academy players he spotlights. It's heartbreaking because as readers we come to know these boys and root for them to succeed despite the looming portents that this isn't a fairy tale ending.

As such, there are no simple caricatures of heroes and villains. There were certainly mistakes made by every party; the organization, Colomer, the players themselves. There were also plenty of dubious intentions; from the Qatari government to coaches and agents looking to turn a profit. I want to say that in the end lessons were learned by everyone involved but player trading and exploitation of African youth players is still too common. Like Abbot says however, it's not as though nothing good came of this program. And he never suggests that clubs should stop scouting in Africa. Only, there are so many logistical and cultural barriers, not to mention ethical quandaries that I never considered before reading this.

There were so many intersecting story lines and characters across long periods of time that I can only slow clap Abbot for wrangling it all together and weaving a compelling narrative. That said it sometimes took too long to circle back to everyone spotlighted. In one instance, Bernard Appiah takes almost 100 pages to reappear in the narrative. There is also a lot of minutiae about the day to day lives of players at the academy and recounting of specific matches. I felt this led to a lull in the middle of the book until it picked up again after drama at the Milk Tournament.

I did appreciate the small tangents about everything from data analysis in scouting to contextualizing the role of Qatar in soccer. While these details may seem redundant to avid soccer fans, they make this book accessible to everyone.

This book really makes you take a different look at a beloved sport. We hear stories of how difficult it is to break into the first team for young European players all the time. We all know the path to becoming a professional soccer player is paved with broken dreams. But the unique struggles of players from certain African countries like age fraud, player trading, poor socio-economic conditions, and stunted educational attainment adds an entirely new dimension. I wonder if it's a coincidence that the only boy to make it to a top club came from a family of comfortable means. I wonder how Colomer and the Football Dreams people will carry on. Most of all I wonder what the boys who trained there will make of their lives. And I genuinely wish them every success.

(I received an ARC of this book from a Goodreads Giveaway.)

[MH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abbot's compulsively readable book centers on a handful of young men who are scouted by Football Dreams, a massive Qatari initiative to search for U-13 soccer talent throughout Africa, and follows how they navigate sporting and family pressures, the transition from absolute poverty, and their own healthy egos when given this once-in-a-lifetime chance. Abbot is a journalist, and his lean writing largely avoids speculation (for example, one important meeting between a player's family, his African youth coach, and Football Dreams personnel is remembered differently by each of the participants, so Abbot briefly tells each side of the story rather than selecting a specific truth), but his style is propulsive and he masterfully holds his cards close, dropping one revelation halfway through that absolutely changed how I saw everything that came before.

Abbot is a little gentle on Qatar - their corrupt deal with FIFA for the World Cup and their horrific human rights abuses in the rush to build stadiums deserve more outrage than Abbot's measured tone. And I'm still not entirely sure what the goal of the Football Dreams program was - finding ringers for the Qatar national team? Strip-mining Africa's talented human resources to resell them to European clubs? Humanitarian relief? These criticisms -especially the first - would loom larger if the book wasn't just so good. I embarrassingly gasped and sighed while reading it, and there are moments that just broke my heart.

I was fortunate to receive an ARC through a Goodreads giveaway.

[Steve Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have written this over and over: I love a good non-fiction book, particularly written by a journalist. Author Sebastian Abbot is a former Associated Press bureau chief in Cairo and Islamabad. His look into the Football Dreams program that searched for the next great world football (soccer) player in Africa for 10 years is insightful. It's impossible not to hope for the young boys - at least we think they are young as lying about age is among the greatest challenges in African football - as they carry the weight of their families and often more with them in search of riches that come from making it in European football.

This was an advanced reader copy, courtesy of my beautiful wife, who keeps me well stocked with amazing books. The book, according to this copy, is due out March 2018 (so next month). Enjoy!

[Jenique · Rating 5 out of 5]

In addition to be a journey through the world of soccer, ambition, poverty, dreams, governments and country competitions, The Away Game presents the challenges, heartbreaks and sometimes achievements with particularly well written prose and imagery.

With the author coming from a journalism background, I was concerned that the recounting of these soccer player search endeavors would be dry and technical; Not the case at all! Mr. Abbot has managed to make these stories come alive with such imagery that the emotions of the real life characters are so genuine and real.

A must read and an in depth looking into the world of FIFA, soccer, managers, families and outcomes that keep the reader engaged and turning the pages. Well Done!

[Lucas Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful journey and story of the scout who helped launch Lionel Messi at Barcelona trying to find the next football star in the dirt fields of Africa.

Following the path of a few players, Abbot richly narrates the dramatic story of those young talents throughout the years after theirs scouting. Encountering succes and tragedy not only on the football pitch.

Not only that but “The Away Game” is set against the geopolitical backdrop of Qatar's rise from animpoverished patch of desert to an immensely rich nation determined to buy a place on the international stage. Football dreams is only a dream?

A must read and one of my favorite books so far!

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one should be allowed to watch the World Cup without reading at least some of this.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great read! I felt like it repeated itself frequently, but it obviously took a lot of time and effort to compile all of the information presented. And it is an interesting topic with intriguing characters, both the kids and coaches. It provides a look at the politics, corruption, youth academies, poverty, success, shame, and culture of development in soccer. Spoiler alert, football is a tough, tough world to live in.

[Tosin Adeoti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This morning I finished “The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars” by Sebastian Abbot. Abbot is a journalist who used to work as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press in the Middle East and Asia.
What do you think happens when you send a group of scouts across the African continent in search of football’s next superstars in what may well be the biggest talent search in sports history? In 2007 alone, over 400,000 boys were tested in cramped dirt-ridden football pitches across Africa.

Eventually, over 5 million kids were tested and a handful chosen and tested in state-of-the-heart facilities in Qatar and Senegal. It was a very selective process, one the author believed is a thousand times more selective than getting into Harvard university.

A man called Josep Colomer was at the center of it all. He had helped Brazil’s coaching staff win the World Cup in 2002, risen to become youth director of FC Barcelona, and in the process helped jump-start the career of someone I consider football’s greatest player in history — Lionel Messi. With all these achievements under his belt, he believed he had what it takes to find gems in rough diamonds on football pitches in Africa.

For a daring venture as this called Football Dreams, you can expect that it would not come cheap. And where else could the funds have come from in 2007 if not oil and gas. The program was launched by Aspire Academy, a colossal institution. Aspire was the brainchild of one of Qatar’s richest and most powerful men, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, son of the emir who had transformed the country.

Let me pause a bit about football here. Anytime I read about economic development, my heart sinks for Nigeria. Life used to be very tough for the Qataris so much so that as early as the 1920s and 1930s, pearling or fishing was the most lucrative profession in that part of the Persian Gulf. The oldest Qataris still remember the years of hunger and poverty which forced many people to leave the peninsula. Qatar’s ruler is said to have struggled so much that he had to take out a mortgage on his house in 1935 to cover a debt of $230 — less than two (2) million naira in today’s currency.

In any case, the discovery of oil and especially natural gas drove a dizzling wind of change, and under sound management the country transformed in a single generation. If you consider that Qataris make up 300,000 out of the country’s population of 2.8 million residents, then you are looking at a GDP per citizen closer to $700,000, a figure six (6) times more than the country in second place — Macau — and over (10) times higher than the equivalent figure in the United States.

#NewWordAlert din | apoplectic

So these guys have a lot of money and while preparing to bid to host the world at the FIFA World Cup in 2022, they aimed to develop their football, and one of such ways was through the establishment of Aspire Academy at a staggering figure of over a billion dollars. Along that line, they have spent over $100 million dollars on Football Dreams — the search to find football next talents in Africa.

Off Colomer went to Africa and he discovered some mind-blowing talents. Way before Messi became popular, in 2005, Barcelona’s reserve coach called a talent during the scouting and told him he reminded him of a player in his team — Messi. This coach was probably thinking of him when he said few years after, “…in Africa, there are many Messis.”

It isn’t always easy for 13-year olds to show their talents though. Many of these players had spent most of their time on dirt fields kicking the ball around barefoot or in plastic sandals. I could relate when the author mentioned a boy who tried to play in borrowed football boots during a test match and quickly switched back to sandals. He just wasn’t comfortable in his new foot attire.

No one reads this book and forgets Serigne Mbaye. Mbaye was considered one of the most inventive players during the scouting. Wiry, quick and full of energy. But Mbaye is deaf. He lost his hearing at the age of 6 after contracting malaria; a disease that led to the death of his father. Looking at the odds against him, Colomer wondered if he should take a chance on him. Chance he took, and he ended up one of the most beloved players at the academy, bonding with players on the field and staff off it. But not many people were willing to take a chance at him. His country’s national team felt he wasn’t a good fit after helping them qualify for a major tournament. Foreign clubs too couldn’t consider having a deaf player on their team. But he still became a professional players, playing for one of Senegal’s top teams in the country’s premier division through Colomer’s assistance.

“Serigne Mbaye is one of those people you meet who changes your
life,” said Kinyeki, a Football Dreams staff member from Kenya. “When you want to think about all the things you don’t have, you think about Serigne Mbaye and his attitude to everything he’s gone through. He still remains optimistic. He still remains strong. He still laughs. He’s still cheerful. And he can’t hear. The rest of us, we can hear, we can see, we can walk around, and we whine about everything that’s wrong in our lives. And he doesn’t. He just teaches the rest of us something. Just be grateful for everything you have because you never know.”

#DoYouKnow The Gold Mine Effect. It made the Flamengo, the Brazilian Club, pass on future Brazilian superstar Ronaldo in the early 1990s when he was 15 years old.
Aside talent, a lot of the kids had attitude. One of the most touching stories told was about Colomer visiting a small Ghanaian town where he discovered. Colomer arrived the night before he was scheduled to hold the tryout and couldn’t quite believe what he found. “All 176 players that were supposed to be tested the next day were already waiting for me on the field,” said Colomer. “I said, ‘What are they doing?’ ” It turned out the boys had traveled from all over the area and were so intent on showcasing their skills that some had been sleeping on the field for two days.

But talent and even attitude are not enough in football. It is difficult to pick talents who will succeed even in places where the scouting process is developed and data and artificial intelligence are being used even though not to the degree expected from these football behemoths. You can pick great talent who have great attitude, but even at that it is extremely challenging to identify which kids have a greater capacity to learn and improve over time, which will ultimately determine who ends up on top. How do you scout the personality trait in a 13-year old? How do you know that a teenager will have the ability to cope with potential distractions off the field like family problems or pesky agents?

Even in a developed league like England, it is estimated that only around 1 percent of the 10,000 kids in the entire English academy system would make a living in the game, and two-thirds of those given a professional contract at age 18 will be out of professional soccer by the time they’re 21 years old. “If this was the success rate in a school, it would most likely be closed down,” the authors of a book on Youth Development in Football concluded.

Millions of kids around the world see making a life in soccer as the ultimate dream, but the small number of players who succeed dominate the headlines, not the millions who fail. Fans rarely see just how daunting the odds are for children to make it, even when they’re marked for greatness at a young age, or how challenging it is for scouts to pick the right kids, even when they know what to look for.

For the 24 African kids picked from over 400,000 boys, it was not a different story. There were many issues. From parents and family members putting pressure on these kids to make more money and send to them, to agents deciding to hold on to players licenses over disagreements on future percentage cut when the players are sold, to agents outrightly taking the kids away from the academy for trials in Europe. The kids were simply at the mercies of adults who they trusted to make the best decisions for them. The adults simply didn’t show up for them, sadly.

It definitely also didn’t help the kids that most of them were not the age they claimed. False ages is already a recipe for failure. With kids with real ages failing to succeed professionally, what are the odds for kids who claim to be 13 when they are 17 or even 21. When this happens, it is only a matter of time before agents start putting pressure on them to jump ship and try their luck abroad if their hope of a cash windfall is to be attained. The players also know that they have a short window to make something of a profession that is already short to start with.

All these added up to the ‘failure’ of the program which had to pack up after a decade of funds pumped into it. Out of the hundreds of players ploughed into the academy, only one player can be said to have signed for a top team — Barcelona — but he still didn’t play a single game for the Catalan club before he was farmed back to his previous club. The rest are either in the backwaters of European leagues, in their local leagues battling unpaid wages, or on the streets trying to eke out a living having not paid attention to education despite enormous educational resources at their disposal and encouragement at the academy.

Yet the reader cannot place all the blame on the players and agents. It’s likely that Qatar had gone on this adventure hoping to use these African kids to prop up their national side in preparation and eventually the winning of the 2022 World Cup but lost interest when FIFA tightened its rules on nationalization of players. These kids may well be pawns in a global game who were discarded when they didn’t meet the pre-determined needs of their benefactors.

For what it’s worth, the program did some good. A Senegalese goalkeeper was sent home early because they discovered he had hepatitis. Other kids have been found to have more serious medical issues, like life-threatening heart problems requiring surgery. They would likely have being part of the death statistics had Football Dreams not stepped in. The boys at the academy earned more than their countrymen playing in African top leagues and remittances sent home helped their families; many of them building houses for their families. Even for the many who didn’t succeed there is little guarantee they would have succeeded at home seeing the fate of their fellow tryout mates.

This is a gripping deeply-moving narration of the joy and pain of talented African boys in the world of wealthy Arab sheikhs, greedy agents and naive parents/guardians.
It is a very interesting enjoyable book.

[C.I. DeMann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good look at international soccer scouting, the difficulties of moving from "top prospect" to "actual professional playing in europe", and just the overall life of young kids in west africa.

[Tom Whalen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a really good book, not for everyone obviously.

This book really exposes a couple things about youth soccer development and the pillaging of natural resources in poor communities by weathier, white European conquistadors. It's hard not to see the correlaton between stealing mineral resources and stealing young men for the hopes of turning them into profit-making machines in Europe. And who gets the money at the end of the day?

What I liked about this book is that the author didn't overly criticize the Africans who lied about their age or the agents/coaches who permit this activity, it was a realistic look into their lives and motiviations. Both sides are looking to exploit the other to get ahead.

It's also really interesting that none of these players made it, one had a brief stint at Barca B but went back to Belgium and is now in India playing. Still a pro career, but not the top 4 European league focus they had. The author compares this to Hoop Dreams a lot and in that sense it is: the idea that there's a bit of luck needed in addition to talent, determination, sacrifice...

[Markus Chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this book shows great promise. Everyone loves underdog, rags-to-riches anecdotes, and the narrative of third-world African children being whisked away from poverty and into the sparkling dream castle of a Qatari football academy sounds like Cinderella recast into a sports paradigm.
There are two stumbling blocks that inhibit any real joyful or life-affirming interpretations of the work - the style and the content.
I recall watching early North American broadcasts of English Football. The commentators seems at pains to use the entire and clearly-enunciated phrase "Barclays English Premier League" at least once during each passage of play, as in "That's the sort of passing play one has come to expect from the Barclays English Premier League," and "Many players find it difficult to make the transition from another league to the physical demands of the Barclays English Premier League." After a while, it ceased to sound sincere and instead just sounded like routine and contractually obligated product placement.
Somehow, the author of this book seems to think that dropping the name "Messi" every three paragraphs will keep reader attention or add some sort of credibility to the exposition of events. As a reader, I found it tedious and artificial.
As for the content [SPOILER ALERT], the largest problem with the entire framing of the historical situation is a sham. The real point of this story is not that there are some bright and talented blood-diamonds-in-the-rough waiting to be discovered in Africa, but that poverty and institutionalized corruption has made talented children into yet another resource to be exploited and trafficked. Everyone lies, cheats, bribes, and steals in order to get money - including the children themselves - making the whole story just a depressing voyage into cynicism.
A typical example would involve a young player showing tremendous promise, evaluated favourably by scouts and coaches, and then he suddenly runs off with the first agent that offers cash because the academy will shortly discover that he has been lying about his age. Then you realize that most of the kids have faked their birth date because that is how the system works. As soon as they are told that there is an MRI test that can scientifically verify their age, they suddenly grasp for the first handful of cash they can grab.
Even if they haven't lied about their age, many young athletes are governed by family members or other figures of authority that make decisions based on how much they stand to gain personally from the player's success.
In short, sympathy for 13-year-olds striving to transcend abject poverty starts to run dry when you discover that they are, in fact 16 years old, and the money that they have been wiring home to their destitute families has been appropriated by the local church or some belligerent coach or uncle.
Finally, you are left with a collection of sob stories of fraudulent and cheating failures blubbering about how much they love God and wish that God would give them another chance. That they betrayed the trust and faith of others in them seems to be an afterthought.
The one case of success presented in the book is a Senegalese boy who was born into a more middle-class family than his peers, and one who kept his head down, did as he was told, and played within the lines. Not exactly fairy-tale stuff.
The book is worth a read, but it only starts feeling authentic when the reader appreciates that the narrator is thematically untrustworthy. The language used is appropriated from a thousand inspirational posters and motivational speeches, but the bottom line is that poverty creates flaws in the human character that football cannot repair.

[Aaron McQuiston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read quite a few nonfiction books about the business side of sports, particularly soccer, and "The Away Game" by Sebastian Abbot could be one of the more interesting stories I have learned. It follows a class of young African boys who are scouted by Qatar to join their academy with promise of exposure to European clubs, which leads to fame, riches, and success not only for the players but for their families and even villages. Basically the idea is that these boys play so much soccer that they are better than the average player but with no money, they will never be discovered. This is an easy set up for promises, dreams, and a dash of corruption to get the players and their families to agree to almost anything.

What makes "The Away Game" work so well is that it does not just tell the story of the academy's pros and cons, but it tells the stories of some of the players, in their own words, following the games that they win and lose, the coaches impressions of them, and the final outcomes of their work. The drama and tension of the players and their dreams are well implemented, and the reader is cheering their victories and agonizing over their failures. The attachment that Abbot gives the readers to these young men makes "The Away Game" much more compelling and dramatic than it could have been in the hands of a less skilled writer. This is essential reading for any soccer fan.

I have received this as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began this book completely ignorant of Football Dreams and Qatar's Aspire Academy, which allowed Abbot to lead me on an emotional journey that was at times uplifting, at times depressing, but almost always compelling.


The stories of the three focal players, particularly Bernard Appiah, immediately hooked me. I found myself unable to resist the allure of the internet, and before his story had played out I looked him up to see for myself how his career had progressed. The entire first section of the book, focused on the initial Football Dreams tryouts across Africa, had me totally convinced about the merits of the program. I completely bought into the enthusiasm of Colomer, the head of the program, and his belief in his inevitable success.

As Abbot explores the early days of the boys' time in Qatar at Aspire Academy, I started to feel a bit dubious about the story, wondering if perhaps the author, like me, had become too transfixed with Colomer and the allure of his quest to find the next Messi. But as that story winds down, Abbot exposes the many cracks that lay at the foundation of Football Dreams. The troubling colonialism of the program, always slightly hinted at, really comes to the fore. The naivety of Colomer about scouting in Africa also threatens the program, as the system of incentives created by Football Dreams was ripe for exploitation by overage players.

Though there are some bright spots to end the story, including a brief spell at Barcelona B for one of the players, the saga ultimately feels like a story of good intentions and bold ambition, but also ignorance, squandered resources, and broken dreams.

[Eric B · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I heard about The Away Game through a friend’s recommendation, I knew it would be right up my ally. I am a sports junky and live for documentaries, behind-the-scenes insights and unique firsthand perspectives on sports across the Globe. Needless to say I had high hopes when I cracked open the book and Abbot delivered.

Abbot’s clear passion for the subject shines through in his writing style yet he manages to present this unbelievable story through an unbiased, objective lens. The substantial research that went into delivering the content of the book is obvious as it gives a complete picture of the simple goals of the aspiring soccer stars intertwined with the politically charged objectives of Qatar and its drive to influence global soccer. I enjoyed so many facets of this book - the human interest stories, dreams of stardom against all odds, analytic influence on recruiting, corruption and the cultural clash of those with the talent and those with the money.

I’m so happy I found this book. Once you pick it up you will not be able to put it down

[EJE Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in soccer, Africa, the Middle East and sports in general. Beautifully written, it is a page turner that takes you into the heart of an epic, international search for soccer's elusive next superstar. You meet the coaches and the kids, who dream big and yet too often come up against the harsh realities of life. The conclusion? That growing up in poverty in Africa is immeasurably stacked against you, but that strength of character and determination can sometimes do more than raw talent in realising your full potential.

[Lia Wainwright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Intertwining sports, international politics, African culture and the dreams of many young athletes! The story seems destined for the silver screen!

[Kael Gannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

- This book was about a humanitarian project called 'football dreams', scouts searching all over Africa in hopes of finding the next great football star. The book starts off by giving background stories of three boys and the rest of the book is shaped around their lives and their football journey. Many ups and downs occurred for all of the boys as they all had to make it through rigorous academy training. Many other challenges such as home lives, age differences, coach problems, size issues, and more all occur for the teenage football stars. Only one of the three boys actually makes it to an elite European club team, personal conflicts and mistakes costing their careers. It showed how hard it actually was and still is to find the next great soccer star such as Messi or Ronaldo. All and all it was a eye opening read about culture in Africa, specifically Senegal, the location of the academy, the hardships the kids have to go through, and solid information piece about football.
- Culture in Senegal is vastly different. Families are much poorer and much less technologically advanced than in America. The homes are much smaller, most families not having much to cook with and having to share a sleeping space together. The native tongue carries but mostly consisting of a French variation. Education is still stressed in Senegal but the schools are much poorer, the kids not having much to work and learn with/from. Although not different for everyone, religion is greatly stressed to the Senegalese people. Football is the biggest sport by far, as kids will play with plastic bags rolled up on any terrain. To them, football is a way of life. America has people obsessed with many sports but it consists over a wide range of them.
- The author's purpose in writing this book was to give the reader a glimpse of what life was like for kids in Africa trying to become the next big soccer sensation. To give the reader an inside scoop of how hard it is to make it to professional soccer. Throughout the entire book, all of the boys are faced with series of hardships that they can't always overcome. Millions of boys try out to become the next star, but by the end of the book only one remains. It shows how little food and clothes kids have, how little money they have, but yet kids pour their entire soul, just trying to be the next big star. The author bounced around from kid to kid, giving multiple representations of what life is like for the kids in Africa, specifically Senegal.
- The theme of the novel, although many could be grasped, is largely perseverance. Throughout the whole book the odds are stacked against Diawandou. He isn't the biggest football player, isn't the most skilled/talented, but he rises up to every challenge thrown at him. He was left of the Senegal national team for the championship, but he didn't let that stop his career. Agents and people asking for money, trying to con him everywhere he goes exist, but he kept his head down. Diawandou persevered throughout the entire book and at was all worth it, getting a chance to play with some of the biggest football stars to ever step on a football field.
- I would recommend this text to people with an interest in sports/soccer. The book provided much information on both past and present football facts and the story is about the lives of three football players. If found of soccer, this is an intriguing read that you will learn a lot about the sport. If not found of sports or soccer, this book will most likely be quite dull and boring.

[Sheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Away Game: The Epic Search for Football's Next Superstars is an in-depth look at scouting young African boys in the hopes of finding the next global superstar. More specifically, it focuses on the Football Dreams programme and its Aspire Academy, a movement funded by the Qatari government and spearheaded by former Barcelona coach Josep Colomer. With its aim of uncovering untapped football talents in multiple African countries and a more discreet goal of finding players to naturalise and represent Qatar's national team, Colomer holds trials across various countries like Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria, bringing the best to his training facility in Doha as part of the Aspire Academy.

The book follows three boys mainly at first: Bernard Appiah, a gifted playmaker with comparisons to Messi; Diawandou Diagne, a centre-back and natural born leader; and Ibrahima Drame, a tall striker with a deadly eye for goal. All three are plucked from their home countries and obscurity to be part of the Aspire Academy programme. Along with the other boys chosen, they are introduced to the luxuries of life in Qatar and the much higher standards of training facilities and programmes available as they are coached in the hopes of becoming future professional footballers. It's a culture shock for many whose families live in poverty.

While Football Dreams may have given many of these boys hope for a much brighter future as its name would suggest, the reality was on the contrary. Many of these boys faced struggles and pressures beyond the pitch. Agent contracts, faked birth certificates, financial pressures from home, impatience, perceived or perhaps real bias from Colomer to certain players and other factors all played a role in cutting short some of the boys' time at the academy and putting an end to their football careers before they even began. Bernard is sent home after a failure to sort out his ownership license and his potential as the future Messi is simply confined to memories as he struggles to have any kind of football career at all. Ibrahima left the academy as he felt that it was stifling him but he was impatience to move to European clubs proved to be in vain and he too was stuck at home for a period before finding a place in the Norwegian second tier. Diawandou is perhaps the only success story, a player that was not tempted by immediate riches possibly because of his middle-class upbringing and eventually signed for Barcelona as part of their B team but he too is currently in the Belgian first division again.

It is a cruel and unforgiving path that many of these boys step foot on when they join the Football Dreams programme. They are shown a chance at a better life and then proceed to have the door slam shut right in their faces for the majority of them. The Away Game certainly highlights many of the issues in the modern game and system regarding the scouting and even trafficking of African players and how there is much that needs to be done to develop such talent and prevent such mistakes from occurring again. 3.5/5

[Jerred Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former soccer player and avid watcher of the game, I once held lofty dreams of becoming a professional on the world's biggest stage. As a child, I worked intensively in pursuit of a life of wealth and fame, practicing day in and day out on a quest for the big leagues. While I no longer harbor these grand ambitions, this book took me back to these times of youth as I read about Football Dreams, an organization in Africa that searched for soccer's next superstars in 13-year old boys across the continent. Abbot describes this process of discovery, following a small group of the best players who are selected at initial tryouts and sent to train at the Football Dreams academy in hopes of eventually reaching Europe. Emotionally compelling and deeply moving, Abbot tells the stories of these multiple individuals striving for success against barriers and obstacles along the way, exploring the complex world of rich Arab sheikhs, Qatari officials, and other characters intertwined with the stories of the young players. He also provides an interesting look into the science of talent identification as a whole and the emergence of data analytics in soccer.
I definitely enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the world of soccer and sports.

[Bernard Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a bid for football glory and in preparation as host of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar launched one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted : a no holds bar attempt to scout the continent of Africa for the very best youngsters, and to bring them to the Aspire. Abbot tells the story of the project - which was initiated in the mid 2000s - from a human angle, interviewing the boys and tracking their progress over the years.

Scouting is a very inexact science. Unlike other sports, identifying the potential in a football player at the age of 12 or 13 is incredibly difficult. Not only are physical attributes and technical ability important, so are intangible attributes like game intelligence and strength of personality. These are very difficult to assess.

In spite of the millions that has gone into this project, no Aspire graduate is playing in the top tier of world football. While Qatar has become Asian Champions, the jury is still out as to whether this qualifies as success.

A good book to understand about youth development in soccer and why it is so difficult.

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was well articulated and introduced me to an aspect of soccer that I haven't discovered to the depth that this book uncovered: scouting for talent. In particular talent in Africa, where soccer is practiced by millions, like in many other parts of the world, however in many countries in Africa soccer can be the ticket out of poverty. The reality is that it is really like a lottery ticket, only a tiny percentage makes it to professional soccer, despite having the talent, there is much more needed to be able to accomplish those dreams.
I play and coach soccer and I found this book very informative and entertaining. It takes you on the journey of three young players, selected by a skilled talent scout to play in a soccer academy in Qatar. From their stories, there is a lot to learn. The author at the end cites also other valuable sources for additional reading.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book's topic fits squarely within some of my prime interests: soccer and international development in Africa, so I'm pretty sure I was the target audience. Still, I really thought that the author nailed it. The book follows around over a period of several years some of the primary characters, both youth players and scouts, from the Qatar Foundation's Football Dreams program. It's really well reported and well written. Better still, the analysis is terrific, both of the soccer questions and how difficult it is to scout and develop top shelf players, but also of the ethical and policy issues raised by such a project in Africa. Probably my favorite book of 2018 so far.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebastian Abbot has written a compelling story of the attempt by the Qatari government to identify and develop the best soccer talent in Africa, through the "Football Dreams" program. Abbot weaves together the stories of the individual boys, along with the global political, economic and sporting contexts for their accomplishments and struggles. This is a really interesting and well-written book, and I didn't want to put it down. It's also a hard book, as there are few (if any) heroes, and the deeper I got into the book, the more frustrated I became with the people involved. Think of this as Hoop Dreams for the international football scene.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know anything about soccer, and I don't really care about sports. However, this book showed up on my porch, and despite my lax interest in the subject, I found the social issues very interesting. The idea that European sports scouts are going into African countries to pick out the most promising young athletes -- many of whom are found playing in dirt fields -- and exporting them to training centers overseas is deeply disturbing, given the historical and modern racial implications.

[Connor Gindt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I read the book, since it expanded my appreciation for many topics (life in Africa, hopes and dreams of kids in poverty, difficulty in scouting young children, etc.) in the process.

The depth of research also made me appreciate the book. The timeline spanned 10+ years, and 3 continents. Much respect to the author.

The book wasn’t the most captivating thing in the world, but a solid read overall.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title and subtitle are deceiving. This is really the story of one particular academy and the story of three or four particular kids than it is a broader analysis of talent search throughout the world.

That said, the book is well-written and the characters are vividly drawn. He even makes the game action sound exciting , which is rather difficult at times when writing about football.

For me, this was reminiscient of Hoop Dreams...and that is a high standard.

[Melinda M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstars by Sebastian Abbot is about Football Dreams and Qatar's Aspire Academy. Football is soccer to the rest of the world that is not American. It follows a handful of young man as they go thru the program. It is a story of ups and downs but was very informative and interesting.

I received a copy of Goodreads Giveaway.

[Peter W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about a monumental 200-million dollar "leave no stone unturned" scouting effort in Africa for soccer talent funded by the government of Qatar. The book was impressive in its research as it had all sorts of anecdotes about soccer and life in Senegal, Ghana and Qatar. It's a reminder that sport is political.

[Cris Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Away Game is a very interesting and informative book about the football culture in sub-Saharan Africa with focus on a Qatari recruitment program. I found Abbot's research to be thorough and culturally refined to provide a level of understanding and accuracy that I'm not convinced the people behind the program being investigated, Football Dreams, ever possessed.