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“Attack, accelerate, dribble!” » The firm voice and the whistles of Boubacar Sidiki Drabo set the tempo. In front of him, on a grass field, the pace quickens. Each in turn, about twenty young people in blue and yellow jerseys set off and compete “one against one”.
The trainer, tracksuit and cap on his head, scrutinizes each pass, corrects each movement, encourages. “They have to move forward together, a team that is not strong in defense cannot attack”, hammers the coach of the juniors. And watch out for mistakes. “Issouf, ten push-ups! », he orders a player who had the misfortune to touch the ball with his hand.
Welcome to the Fogebu training center, a German-Burkinabe football association for the reintegration of disadvantaged young boys. Here, on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, fifty-two boarders are “fed, housed, whitened and trained” for three years, free of charge. They are between 14 and 17 years old and are out of school, orphans or from precarious backgrounds.
All dream of becoming professional players and one day wearing the colors of the Etalons, the football team of Burkina Faso. In the meantime, classes, training, chores… In Fogebu, we cultivate “military spirit”.
Neither read, nor write, nor calculate
At 5:30 p.m. sharp, the coach whistled the end of the match. We stretch, we put away our crampons and we hurry to pick up the cones on the ground. Akim, a 17-year-old from Ouagalais, goes to the shower, his forehead beaded with sweat. After dinner, he especially does not want to miss the match of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) broadcast on the small television in the dining hall.
When he arrived in 2019, he couldn’t read, write or calculate. “I hadn’t been to school for three years because my parents could no longer afford school fees”, explains the CM2 student, who is finishing his last year at the center.
“He had potential, he risked ending up on the street or falling into delinquency”, explains Boubacar Sidiki Drabo, who selected him after a series of school and football level tests. Each year, the association recruits twenty-four young people across the country. “These are children from often very poor families. Some ate only once a day, others were abandoned or lived on the streets following the death of their parents., explains Mamadou Lamine Kouaté.
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