African professional football players conversion’s: ” Turning problems into opportunities”
AFRICA FOOTGOAL Edition continues and on this second day of virtual conference, the speakers started with the theme: “footballers’ conversion, challenges and opportunities’’
Kamil Zayatte, Ferdinand Coly, Bruce Djité, and El hajoui Hamza talked during 90 minutes with FIFA expert Diamil FAYE on the issue.
Africa foot goal offers you a short summary of their interventions:
Coly: “A footballer’s career is relatively short and you have to keep an eye on your finances while you prepare for the transition. Cases of swindling are damaging and one should not give up in the fight against this scourge’’
Hamza (FUS rabat) : ‘In Morocco we had at one point frozen the activities of agents. The player is a citizen who has the right to health, education and professional supervision”.
Bruce Djité: “we believe that we must above all manage the individual, not just the player. Because if the player is lucky, he will have a career of 15 years at the most. So you need to be well surrounded to have the education and training necessary for the proper management of this reconversion. The federations have an important role to play in this, thanks in particular to the use of FIFA funds”.
Zayatté: “ the rule in Africa is that football does not rhyme with education; this means that players generally leave school very early and once professional, they are vulnerable to agents and other actors involved in the management of their careers”.