‘We got off the airplane and we went to a hotel, in Roissy, Paris. It was near the airport. I think in the north of the city. The agent had booked me a room. It was an OK hotel, not very expensive but nice. He said, “I am just going somewhere, I will be back very soon.” I thought everything was good. I was in Europe, I had my place to stay and the agent was taking care of me. But he never came back. I called and called. He didn’t answer his phone. I didn’t know what to do.’
It was an expensive plane journey and first night in a European hotel for Ben, who was just 16. It had cost his family €3,000. It had been paid to an agent who had promised that their boy had something special, that he could earn big money playing as an attacking midfielder in Europe. Racing Club de Lens, the top-flight French side, was one club that the agent claimed he had special connections with. Ben could get a trial there. It would not be a problem. Other clubs were mentioned. Maybe Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon. It was four years ago.
Ben was from Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon. He had grown up watching the Indomitable Lions, the nickname of the national team, and had wanted to emulate players like Samuel Eto’o, Benoît Assou-Ekotto and Alex Song who had left to play for big European clubs. They were just like him, he thought, so why couldn’t it happen to him?
Whenever Ben had a spare moment he would play football. He played after school on the street – ‘Monday to Friday, from four until six’ – and on the weekends and holidays in organised matches. ‘Sometimes,’ he said, ‘some professionals would join in and they would say I was a very good player.’ He joined Dragon Club de Yaoundé, a second division club, and played for the youth team.
‘Football is a way out,’ Ben said. He spoke softly, almost in a whisper, in good English. ‘Everyone wants to play. We don’t have a very good football structure in Cameroon, so even if you play at a high level you want to leave. You want to leave and live your life in Europe. That is very important.’
Ben was not born into poverty. He was from a middle-class family. His father ran his own business. ‘We lived well, yes,’ Ben said. ‘We had a good life, we were at home with everybody – my sisters, my brother, my parents – we were happy. We had a good life, yes. Poor? No. It was sufficient.’ Sufficient enough to afford €3,000 to pay an agent. It was equivalent of half the annual salary in Cameroon.
‘One day I played a good match and afterwards a man came to me and said that I should not be in Cameroon. My place is not here and that I should go to Europe. He said he wanted to be my agent and that I should call my dad and tell him.
‘But I was still at school. I didn’t like school. Sometimes it was fun but it wasn’t very exciting. I wanted to play football. I said to my dad it was football or nothing. The agent said he needed the money to make my visa, make my passport and the plane ticket.
‘My father paid. I was training very hard then because I knew that when I come here, to France, I will be playing football at this high level. The man was calling me all the time: “Train hard, you know I’m counting on you.” And I said, “It’s OK, it’s no problem.”’
The agent flew with Ben to Paris. On the flight, an excited Ben asked the agent about the clubs he would be having trials with and what he could expect. But the enthusiasm was one way. ‘He said I had been playing well but he said, “Let’s wait and see what happens.” We arrived and we went to a bar. We were talking and talking and it was about eight o’clock and then we went and took a room in the hotel. He told me that, “I am coming back soon.” From now I don’t know where he is.’
Ben was left alone in a strange city with no money. In an unconvincing rasp, a note up from his whisper, he attempted to take offence at my suggestion that at such a young age he might have been scared. ‘I was not afraid,’ he said. ‘How did I feel? Like a boy. That is all. I knew I was alone. I went down [to the hotel reception] and asked to use the phone. I called my parents back in Cameroon. I tell them where I am, the man left me in the hotel, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do. My mother said, “OK, calm down, I will call one of my friends that is there. She will see if she can come to the hotel.” She took me to stay with them and then after I will see if I can manage. That’s how it happened.’
And how had Ben managed? He had no football club, no job and no money. He lived with his mother’s friend. He got up at ten in the morning and spent the day training in a local park. ‘I have nothing,’ he said. ‘I do not even have my independence.’