Being recruited to play professional soccer was supposed to be a dream come true …

Promised fame and fortune by an unscrupulous soccer scout, two 15-year-old Malian teenagers leave their families and head to Madrid with dreams of becoming like the African football stars they idolise.

Entering Spain at great expense to their impoverished families back home, the boys soon come up against the brutal side of soccer recruitment: perform instantly or be abandoned. Out of their depth in an unfamiliar country, filled with false expectations and left to fend for themselves, their sporting adventure soon turns into an increasingly desperate struggle that takes the boys all across Europe.

This fictionalised depiction of a scandalous (and illegal, according to FIFA rules) practice is made with sensitivity, humour and engaging performances by its two young leads.

"A business that's been compared to a modern-day version of the slave trade." – Indiewire

MIFF recommends ages 15+