It is a public artificial football pitch in one of the city parks, where they have formed an informal community club called PolBlack. The West African community in Warsaw is small and dispersed, but one spot in the capital plays an important role for West African football migrants. Warsaw, the capital and the most culturally diverse city in the country, is the most popular choice. They then look for alternatives, often moving to a place where there is some kind of West African diasporic community. Over time, West African football players grow increasingly frustrated with their predicament and begin to realize the impossibility of escaping marginality in Polish football. In more than a decade, only two West African footballers in Polish lower divisions have managed to get a contract in a better league. In reality, such career trajectories hardly ever materialize for those who end up in Poland. At the beginning, young West African footballers stay positive and think that these hardships are only temporary, in the hope that Poland will be a stepping stone to a more lucrative career elsewhere. They expected that reaching Europe would be the end of their struggles, but they have to face instead low wages, solitude, lack of exposure and meagre prospects of athletic progress. Having overcome marginality in one setting, these footballers find themselves yet again in a marginal position. In that fortunate group, only a few make it to clubs in the top football leagues of Western Europe, while the majority land on the margin of European football, in obscure settings like Polish lower-division clubs, the majority of which are located in the countryside. Yet these widely circulating images obscure the harsh reality – that out of thousands of young football hopefuls, only a tiny fraction will get a chance to migrate abroad to play football professionally. The image of an accomplished high-profile West African football star who embodies the masculine ideal of an independent and responsible adult man, capable of financially supporting his relatives and entire communities, further underpins the shared sentiment.
Aspiring footballers join football academies that have recently mushroomed all over West Africa, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o.
POLAND FOOTBALL LEAGUE PROFESSIONAL
Many young aspiring footballers in West Africa see participation in professional football, which has over the years become a global multibillion industry, as a pathway out of poverty and marginalization.
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