Rinascita Refugees by Giuseppe Carotenuto

Every year, thousands of children leave West Africa with dreams of becoming professional footballers in Europe, but few of them make it. Many of them are approached by fake football agents who promise trials at international football clubs, but when they get to Europe they are often exploited in labour camps between Spain and Portugal, and sometimes abandoned on the street without their documents.

In Carmiano in southern Italy, a town of 15,000 inhabitants, there is a young football team – the ‘Rinascita Refugees’ – which is made up of asylum seekers. The team belongs to a project aimed at protecting unaccompanied foreign minors, and for a number of years it has been at the top of the championship tables in the Puglia region. Guineans, Senegalese, Gambians, Nigerians and Malians are among the nationalities of young footballers whose kit bears the motto: ‘Let’s kick racism’.