For African footballers Russia is a land of false promises

MOSCOW, June 10 (AFP): As football's top stars arrive in Russia chasing World Cup glory, young African players lured to the country with promises of lucrative contracts say that for them it is a place of scams and shattered dreams.

"We are the team of false promises," said Ismael Soumahoro, who was 16 and playing in Ivory Coast's top flight when a scout convinced him "football is Africa is good but it would be better to take my chances in Europe."

Soumahoro paid the scout 3,000 euros ($3,500) only to find, like so many before him, that promises of a spot with a Moscow club disappeared like a mirage.

He ended up training with a local team in the southern city of Krasnodar until his tourist visa ran out, leaving him adrift with no income in a country with frigid winters and a language he could barely speak.

"It was tough, I didn't know what to do," he said. "It gets you down as you've lost your home club and your dream. In a stroke, you have nothing."

While teams in Russia's Premier League can sign foreign talent, players in the lower divisions must be Russian or have a hard-to-obtain residence permit.

Ernest Akhilomhen was a regular in Nigerian youth squads before leaving at age 16 to try his luck in Russia.

He said coaches regularly tell him: "Ernest we like you, we want to sign you, but you have to get the good documents." Without the correct paperwork Akhilomhen says he must break into the Premier League because it allows foreigners, a dream he stubbornly clings to.