Football migration is omnipresent in many African countries. The success of players such as Sadio Mané from Senegal, Mohamed Salah from Egypt or Asisat Oshoala from Nigeria in European football has fuelled the dream of thousands of young talents on the African continent to follow in their footsteps.
Historical development of male African player migration
In the years before and after the Second World War, the migration of male African players mainly followed routes along colonial dependencies. Clubs from France, Belgium and Portugal utilized these connections to recruit players from their colonies. By the end of the 1930s, more than 140 mainly North African players were playing in France's now professionalised league system, and in the post-war period French clubs increasingly recruited players from Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Cameroon. Similarly, the Portuguese government encouraged the recruitment of players from Angola and Mozambique in the 1950s and 1960s, not least to strengthen the Portuguese national team. In addition, around 30 players from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo played in Belgium's top two leagues in the early 1960s.
Great Britain, on the other hand, took a different approach during the colonial era and initial postcolonial period. Following a handful pioneering African players in Britain at the turn of twentieth century, legal restrictions on immigration that were implemented by both the British government and the English Football Association over the course of the twentieth century severely hindered the mobility of African footballers. But even when those restrictions were successively relaxed, existing racial prejudice against Black players in British football continued and British clubs hardly signed any African footballers apart from a couple of – mainly white – South Africans. Hence, until the end of the twentieth century, British football did not exploit its (post-)colonial entanglements in anything near the way that France, Belgium or Portugal did.
For a long time, Germany was not a destination for African footballers. Only since the 1960s, and via personal and club connections, a handful of players began to turn Germany into a destination country. However, pioneers such as Charles Gyamfi or Ibrahim Sunday from Ghana did not make a lasting impact. It took until the late 1980s, since players such as Anthony Yeboah (Ghana), followed by Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria), Samuel Kuffour (Ghana) and Jonathan Akpoborie (Nigeria) in the 1990s, left their mark in German football. On the one hand, they were crowd favourites and figureheads of their clubs, but on the other, they were often victims of racialisation and racist abuse. While their style of play was often exoticized in the media, described as graceful, infantile and playful as well as raw and powerful, reflecting both admiration and condescension, racist chants by opposing fans were a weekly phenomenon in German stadiums.
Since the mid-1990s, there has been a massive increase in African football migration to all over Europe. On the one hand, while an accelerating commercialization and global broadcasting of European national and continental competitions has sparked the interest in European football globally and particularly in Africa, the ease of foreign player restrictions in European professional football due to the so-called Bosman ruling (1995) has opened the doors for African players to enter the European game. On the other hand, improved approaches to talent development in a growing number of African countries led to the success of African national teams at World Cups and international youth tournaments and hence contributed to the recognition of African football on the global stage. In the eyes of European clubs, African players offer great skill at relatively low cost.
Since the early 2000s, destinations have become increasingly divers and range from long-established leagues in Europe to more recent and upcoming competitions in the US and South-East Asia. West and North Africa, regions that count on solid infrastructures of talent development including European-run professional academies, remain the dominant origins. In the southern part of the continent, South Africa offers comparably attractive conditions for both local and foreign footballers from Africa. The migration of players from other countries in the region is therefore often directed towards the professional competitions there.
Migration of women footballers from Africa
African football migration is not limited to men players. Since the late 1990s, though on a comparatively modest level, women footballers from Africa have been contracted by clubs from overseas. Following efforts to develop and professionalise the women’s game in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, and more recently Senegal, Zambia and Morocco, as well as the successful performances of the national teams of Nigeria and Ghana at World Cups have paved the way for Adjoa Bayor and Alberta Sackey (Ghana) along with Perpetua Nkwocha and Cynthia Uwak (Nigeria) to ply their trade in the US, Germany and Sweden.
Downsides in African football migration
Overall, the rise in numbers and the success of African players at the global stage cannot overshadow the numerous downsides in African football migration. Particularly in men’s football – but increasingly also in the women’s game – reports of the exploitation and trafficking of players who are lured with empty promises of lucrative contracts overseas by dubious intermediaries are frequent. Further, even if a career move abroad materializes, career and life trajectories seldom take a linear path. African footballers in European leagues are more often confronted with short-term contracts, lower salaries, racism and lack of dual career opportunities than both native players and migrant footballers from other regions.