Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,11 Apr 2014,27 mins

Child Footballers! The Search for the Next Messi

World Football

Available for over a year

Are Europe's biggest clubs exploiting children as young as five or six years old, in the search for the next big thing? Barcelona received a ban from FIFA for illegally recruiting under-age children from overseas. The former Dutch international Aron Winter discusses why his country are so often the nearly-men at the World Cup. And hear the remarkable story of how football saved a young goalkeeper's life during the genocide in Rwanda. Picture: Barcelona fans show a banner which says La Masia No Es Toca ie 'Keep your hands off our youth academy'. Credit: Getty Images

Programme Website
More episodes