海灣黑金王國卡塔爾的足球夢

DOHA, Qatar — A little more than a decade ago, Andreas Bleicher, then a director of one of Germany’s Olympic training centers, arrived in the tiny gulf nation of Qatar, wooed there by its royal family to help turn the hopeless national soccer program into something worthy of the world’s respect.

卡塔爾多哈——大約10年前，安德烈亞斯·布萊謝爾(Andreas Bleicher)來到了小小的海灣國家卡塔爾。布萊謝爾當時是德國一家奧林匹克訓練中心的總監，而卡塔爾王室想要獲得他的幫助，讓希望渺茫的卡塔爾足球在世界上贏得一席之地。

There were plenty of reasons this would be difficult — the country hardly has a tradition of soccer excellence, and its record of producing premier athletes in any sport is sparse. But there was one problem that seemed insurmountable.

這個任務很艱鉅，原因相當多——卡塔爾不僅足球水平歷來不高，而且在任何體育項目上都鮮見頂尖運動員。但是，有一個問題看似特別難以克服。

With a native population of only 300,000, Qatar simply did not have enough young players to form a team that could hope to compete with the likes of Brazil, Argentina and Germany.

卡塔爾僅有30萬公民，根本沒有足夠多的年輕球員來組成一支能與巴西、阿根廷和德國等球隊較量的隊伍。

“We were trying to build a national program with a talent pool the size of one you might find in a small United States city,” Bleicher said.

“我們當時試圖建立一個全國性的足球體系，但人才庫的規模和一座美國小城差不多，”布萊謝爾說。

One of his early hires was Josep Colomer, a former youth scout for F.C. Barcelona generally credited with discovering Lionel Messi, perhaps the best soccer player in the world, when Messi was a boy in Argentina.

在他最早聘用的人員中，有曾經擔任過巴塞羅那足球俱樂部(F.C. Barcelona)青訓球探的何塞普·科洛梅爾(Josep Colomer)。人們普遍認爲，當初就是科洛梅爾發現了阿根廷少年利昂內爾·梅西(Lionel Messi)。梅西或許是當今世界上最優秀的足球運動員。

Colomer was known in soccer circles for his unorthodox ideas, and soon he began talking about importing talent to Qatar, from Africa, where even children in the most far-flung villages grow up playing the game.

在足球界，科洛梅爾素有劍走偏鋒的聲名，很快他就想出了把非洲人才引進到卡塔爾的點子。在非洲，即便是最偏遠的村莊，孩子們也從小就開始踢足球。

“Many of the players there, they don’t have any chance to be seen, to be discovered,” Colomer said.

“那裏有很多球員，他們完全沒有機會被人看到，被人發現，”科洛梅爾說。

The possibilities were tantalizing. What if Qatar could send expert scouts throughout Africa on a mission to identify young, talented boys and offer them scholarships to come train at Qatar’s Aspire Academy, the new, glimmering sports institute that was bankrolled by the royal family?

這條路的前景頗爲誘人。如果卡塔爾把球探專家派遣到非洲各地，去發掘有潛力的年輕男孩，併爲他們提供獎學金，讓他們前來卡塔爾的Aspire運動精英學院(Aspire Academy)，會發生什麼事呢？Aspire運動精英學院是一所亮閃閃的新體育學院，由卡塔爾王室出資修建。

From that simple premise unspooled a wildly ambitious plan that reached from the dusty fields of Senegal and Kenya to the cloistered royal palaces of Qatar to a rundown stadium in a sleepy corner of rural Belgium.

從這個簡單的前提出發，他們展開了一個雄心勃勃的計劃，從塞內加爾和肯尼亞塵土飛揚的場地，到卡塔爾遠離喧囂的王室宮殿，再到比利時某個僻靜鄉村的一座破舊體育場。

Let other countries start small. In the first year alone, Qatar screened nearly 430,000 boys in 595 locations across seven African countries. More than seven years later, Aspire has screened 3.5 million young athletes across three continents and cherry-picked the most promising boys for odysseys that have spanned the globe.

讓其他國家去小打小鬧吧，卡塔爾要大張旗鼓。僅在第一年，卡塔爾就在七個非洲國家的595個地方測試了近43萬名男孩。在之後的七年多時間裏，Aspire在全球東奔西跑，測試了三大洲的350萬年輕運動員，精心挑選出其中最有前途的男孩。

A Soccer Deadline

最後期限

As for its soccer ambitions, Qatar has a deadline to deliver a team that looks as if it belongs on the world stage: the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar will host.

談到卡塔爾在足球上的雄心抱負，它需要在最後期限之前組織起一支看上去屬於世界舞臺的球隊。這個期限是2022年世界盃，其主辦國就是卡塔爾。

When Qatar won its 2010 bid to host that tournament — a process tainted by accusations of rampant bribery — it earned the host’s privilege of an automatic berth at the games.

2010年贏得賽事主辦權時，卡塔爾也獲得了自動獲得參賽資格的東道主特權。有人指責，申辦過程中行賄現象猖獗，污點重重。

It will most likely be Qatar’s debut in the World Cup. The Maroon, as the team is known, sits at 100th place in the latest world rankings, between Zimbabwe and Moldova.

這有很可能是卡塔爾隊在世界盃上的首次亮相。這支球隊被稱爲“絳衣軍團”(The Maroon)，在最新的世界排名中列第100位，處於津巴布韋和摩爾多瓦之間。

Bleicher and Colomer insist they have sought out the best young African athletes as a way to provide high-level competition for Qatari boys, and not, they maintain, so that African players can suit up en masse for Qatar’s national team. But there remains a possibility, albeit a remote one, that some African players could represent Qatar in 2022.

布萊謝爾和科洛梅爾堅持表示，他們找來最優秀的非洲年輕運動員，是爲了給卡塔爾青少年提供高水平的競爭激勵，而不是要讓非洲球員集體加入卡塔爾國家隊。但一些非洲球員仍然可能會身披卡塔爾球衣參加2022年的世界盃，雖然這種可能性並不大。

“Could it happen?” Bleicher said. “I suppose maybe some of the players feel like they would want to represent Qatar, because Qatar helped them when their home countries did not.”

“會發生這種事嗎？”布萊謝爾問道，“我想，也許有些球員希望能加入卡塔爾隊，因爲卡塔爾爲他們提供了自己國家沒有給予的幫助。”

But naturalization rules make it difficult — requiring players to live in the country for five continuous years after age 18. Bleicher said he believes it is more likely that the African athletes end up representing their native countries, where their Success would then reflect back on Qatar and its training program. A number of the boys have already played for their home nations. “If we naturalize a few players, what will happen?” Bleicher said. “Everyone will kill us. Everyone will see. We are not stupid, and neither is anyone else.” Critics, though, have long been skeptical of Aspire Football Dreams, the name of the international recruitment program.

然而，根據卡塔爾的入籍規則，要做到一點很困難。規則要求，球員年滿18歲之後，應在該國連續生活五年。布萊謝爾說，他認爲更有可能發生的情況是，這批非洲運動員最終會代表自己的祖國參賽，而他們獲得的成功，將反過來爲卡塔爾及其培訓計劃提供助益。很多青少年隊員都已經爲自己的祖國出場。“如果我們讓幾個球員入籍，會發生什麼事？”布萊謝爾反問。“大家會殺了我們。大家都會看在眼裏。我們不傻，別人也不傻。”不過，對於這個名爲“Aspire足球之夢”(Aspire Football Dreams)的國際招募計劃，批評者長期以來都心存疑慮。

Some believe Qatar will ultimately attempt to naturalize some of the boys. Others have suggested that the program was designed to curry favor with the FIFA panel that awarded the 2022 tournament. And some fear that the boys, selected at 13 years of age, are being exploited.

有些人認爲，卡塔爾最終會嘗試讓一些青少年球員入籍。另一些人則指出，該計劃的目的是要討好國際足聯的委員會，從而贏得2022年的杯賽主辦權。還有些人擔心，這些在13歲時被挑選出來的男孩被利用了。

Yet Qatar maintains there is a higher purpose, a humanitarian impulse to aid a largely beleaguered region even as it helps to rebrand the emirate, which has been criticized by human rights groups for abusive treatment of migrant laborers.

然而，卡塔爾堅稱，他們的目標更遠大，出於人道主義，他們渴望幫助一個普遍陷入困境的地區，雖說此舉也有助於重塑卡塔爾的形象。人權組織一直批評卡塔爾虐待外來勞工。

Start of Aspire Africa

Aspire非洲的開啓

In April 2007, Aspire announced that it was embarking on an international talent search called Aspire Africa. The original plans called for scouts to be dispatched to seven African countries — Morocco, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

2007年4月，Aspire宣佈，它將開展一項名爲“Aspire非洲”的國際人才搜尋活動。最初的計劃是派遣球探到七個非洲國家——摩洛哥、喀麥隆、加納、肯尼亞、尼日利亞、塞內加爾和南非。

In that first year, the tryouts were heavily publicized, on television and radio and on posters in small villages. The project was supported by Nike, as well as Bonus Sports Marketing, a consulting firm founded by Sandro Rosell (who later became the president of F.C. Barcelona).

在第一年裏，這項選拔活動通過廣播電視和貼在小村莊的海報進行了大量宣傳。項目獲得了耐克公司(Nike)以及桑德羅·羅塞爾（Sandro Rosell，他後來成爲巴塞羅那俱樂部的主席）創辦的BSM諮詢公司(Bonus Sports Marketing)襄助。

From the start, the program was marketed as a chance for young African boys to have a shot at a new life, one that could drastically change the possibilities for them and their families and even their communities.

從一開始，這個計劃就被宣傳爲一個機會：讓年輕的非洲男孩嘗試一種新的生活，可以徹底改變他們自己、他們的家庭，甚至他們的社區。

“In the beginning, the people in Africa, they didn’t believe we were coming,” Bleicher recalled.

“一開始，非洲人不相信我們真的會來，”布萊謝爾回憶道。

When the scouts arrived, driving through the villages in S.U.V.s, they were often mobbed by young boys hoping to catch their attention.

當球探們抵達非洲，開着越野車經過大小村莊時，經常會被希望能吸引他們注意力的年輕男孩團團圍住。

Aspire originally planned to offer scholarships to only three finalists, who would then come to Doha to live and train. But once the scouts saw the wealth of talent on display, they scaled up their ambitions, allowing for scholarships for up to two dozen boys, many of whom would live and train at a satellite academy opened in Saly, Senegal.

Aspire原本打算只給前三名入圍者提供獎學金，讓他們去多哈生活和訓練。但是，當球探們看到這裏的人才資源之豐富時，他們的胃口就變大了。最後，他們把獎學金提供給了20多名男孩，其中許多人會在塞內加爾薩利的分院裏生活和訓練。

According to an internal concept document shown to The New York Times, Aspire executives initially saw the Senegal academy as a place to develop a potential “talent pool” for Qatari football clubs and to enhance Aspire’s “image as the world’s best talent pool.”

《紐約時報》看到的一份內部概念文件顯示，Aspire的高管最初把塞內加爾的那所學院當作一個爲卡塔爾的足球俱樂部打造潛在“人才庫”的地方，同時強化Aspire作爲“世界上最優秀人才庫的形象”。

“We realized that the level of the players was huge,” Colomer said. “And we could organize an academy with these players to give them a hope and a chance to grow to the high levels.”

“我們意識到，球員的水平很出色，”科洛梅爾說，“我們可以用這些球員組織一個學院，給他們提供一個提升到很高水平的希望和機會。”

A Tough Transition

艱難的過渡

In the years that followed, Aspire Africa was rebranded as Aspire Football Dreams, its scope expanding to as many as 17 countries, including three in the Americas (Guatemala, Costa Rica and Paraguay) and two in Asia (Vietnam and Thailand). By bringing the boys to the academies in Qatar and Senegal at such a young age, Aspire shouldered responsibility for their development not just as soccer players, but as people. The transition has not always been easy.

在隨後的幾年裏，Aspire非洲演變爲“Aspire足球之夢”(Aspire Football Dreams)，範圍擴展到多達17個國家，包括三個美洲國家（危地馬拉、哥斯達黎加和巴拉圭）及兩個亞洲國家（越南和泰國）。讓這些年紀輕輕的男孩進入位於卡塔爾和塞內加爾的學院，Aspire 肩負的責任不只是發展他們的足球運動員生涯，還要把他們培養成人。這個過渡有時候很不容易。

“They come from the mud huts in Africa to this spaceship,” said one former Aspire coach, who wished to remain anonymous because he still works in soccer.

“他們從非洲的泥屋來到這艘宇宙飛船上，”Aspire計劃的一位前教練說。由於仍然在足球領域工作，他不願具名。

There are language differences, and players get homesick. Some inside Aspire also expressed concerns that the boys were being trained too much, and that they were hiding injuries for fear of being sent back.

語言上的差異是個問題，而且球員們也會想家。Aspire的一些內部人士還表示，他們擔心孩子們訓練過量了，而且還會因爲害怕被遣送回國而隱瞞自己的傷情。

“We were afraid,” said Franck Cedric Tchoutou, a Cameroonian who was among the early scholarship students who lived and trained in Doha. “Most of us, we came from poor families. Being in Qatar or being in Aspire was a great experience. It was a great opportunity. So we walked around there and we were always afraid to lose our opportunities.”

弗蘭克·錫德里克·楚土(Franck Cedric Tchoutou)來自喀麥隆，是早期獲得獎學金並在多哈生活和訓練的學員之一。“我們很害怕，”他說，“我們多數人家裏都很窮。能來到卡塔爾或進入Aspire學院是一次了不起的經歷，也是一次很棒的機會。所以我們小心翼翼的，總是害怕失去我們的機會。”

Bleicher acknowledged that a scholarship away from home can be trying, but he said that Aspire offered its players more than most academies in terms of medical care, education and training.

布萊謝爾承認，遠離家鄉訓練的日子會非常難捱，但他表示，在醫療保健、教育和培訓方面，Aspire爲學員提供的資源比其他學校多。

According to an agreement reviewed by The Times, a Football Dreams scholarship offered room and board and training and schooling, a few hundred dollars per month in spending money, as well as tickets for the boys to travel home and for parents to visit. The families also receive as much as $5,000 per year, a sum that in many cases would be several times a family’s annual income.

根據《紐約時報》閱讀過的一份協議，足球之夢項目提供住宿、餐飲、訓練和文化課，還有每月幾百美元的零花錢，以及這些男孩子回家探親或父母前來探望的機票。他們的家人每年還能拿到多達5000美元，對他們當中的許多人來說，這是全家年收入的好幾倍。

At the start of 2014, there were about 70 boys living at the Senegal academy. Last year, Aspire brought Lionel Messi to its Senegal campus to announce plans to distribute 400,000 mosquito nets and place a medical official in every African town where Football Dreams operates.

在2014年初，約有70名學員住在塞內加爾校區。去年，Aspire學院把梅西請到了塞內加爾校區，宣佈將向每一個有足球之夢項目的非洲城鎮發放40萬頂蚊帳，並配備一名醫療官員。

“I believe we can use football and the inspirational power of sport,” Messi said at the event, according to an Aspire news release, “to really make a difference.”

根據Aspire的一份新聞稿，梅西在活動中說，“我相信，我們可以利用足球，以及體育運動鼓舞人心的力量，帶來真正的改變。”

Despite Qatar’s insistence that Football Dreams was always intended as a humanitarian mission, the program drew intense criticism almost as soon as Aspire’s scouts set off in search of African talent. The unease was due in part to Qatar’s recent history of paying to import foreign athletes to represent it in international competitions.

儘管卡塔爾堅稱，足球之夢一直是當做一項人道主義項目來開展的，但是Aspire的球探剛一開始蒐羅非洲的人才，這個項目就招來了激烈的批評。之所以產生這種不安，一定程度上是因爲在並不久遠的過去，卡塔爾曾經斥資引進外籍運動員，讓他們代表卡塔爾參加國際比賽。

Yet some in Doha have apparently pondered the question of whether it is worthwhile to recruit foreign soccer players to become Qatari citizens.

然而，多哈的一些人似乎考慮過招募外國足球運動員，並允許其加入國籍是否值得的問題。

One former Aspire executive said that, in private meetings, influential Qataris wanted to know why they should not be able to naturalize the imported players — Qatar had trained them after all — and in that way bolster the national team.

Aspire學院的一名前高管說，卡塔爾一些有影響力的人物在私下交談中都曾問過，爲什麼不能讓外籍運動員入籍，並通過這種方式壯大國家隊——畢竟卡塔爾對他們進行了培訓。

“For them, they pay for it,” the former executive said. “Other people have a big chance to have an easy life sponsored by the Qataris.”

“對他們來說，他們已經買單了，”這名前高管說。“而其他人也有很大機會過上由卡塔爾資助的輕鬆生活。”

Bleicher acknowledged that at the beginning of the project, the question of “whether some participants could one day play for Qatar” was “raised, but dismissed.”

布萊謝爾承認，在項目初期，“有人曾經提出過有朝一日一些學員能否爲卡塔爾隊效力”的問題，“但最後不了了之了。”

“It did not align with the purpose of the project and the values of Aspire,” he said.

“這與項目的目標，以及Aspire學校的價值觀不符，”他說。

An Asset in a Cup Bid

申辦世界盃的資本

Even if, as Bleicher and others insist, the boys do not play for Qatar in 2022, some saw the international recruitment program as a piece of Qatar’s multipronged effort to win the World Cup bid.

即使像布萊謝爾和另外一些人堅稱的那樣，這些青少年不會代表卡塔爾參加2022年世界盃的比賽，有些人仍然認爲，這個國際培養項目是卡塔爾贏得世界盃申辦權的綜合行動中的一部分。

In interviews, Qatari officials and Aspire executives denied this was the case, emphasizing that Football Dreams was a costly program meant to help needy nations and that it provided minimal benefits for Qatar.

卡塔爾官員和Aspire學院的高管們在接受採訪時否認了這種說法，他們強調說，足球之夢是一個成本很高的項目，目的是幫助貧困國家，不會爲卡塔爾帶來什麼好處。

“Honestly, the amount of times that we mentioned it were minimal,” Hassan Al-Thawadi, the chief executive of Qatar’s bid committee, said, referring to the notion that Football Dreams played a key role in the 2022 campaign.

對於足球之夢在申辦2022年世界盃的過程中扮演關鍵角色的說法，卡塔爾世界盃申辦委員會的首席執行官哈桑·塔瓦迪(Hassan Al-Thawadi)表示，“老實說，我們提到它的次數極少。”

Documents reviewed by The Times suggested otherwise. During the summer of 2009, Aspire Academy’s marketing and communications department drew up a proposal that detailed precisely how Aspire Football Dreams could help Qatar’s bid for the World Cup.

但《紐約時報》閱讀過的文件顯示，情況並非如此。2009年夏天，Aspire學院的營銷和公關部門起草了一份計劃書，詳細地敘述了Aspire足球之夢可以怎樣幫助卡塔爾申辦世界盃。

A number of news stories have raised claims that Qatar, separate from Aspire, attempted to rig the bidding process with money. Qatar has denied the allegations, and FIFA is investigating.

數篇新聞報道中還提出了其他的說法，稱除了Aspire學院之外，卡塔爾還試圖撒錢來操縱申辦流程。卡塔爾否認了這些指控，FIFA正在展開調查。

Of the 24 nations with delegates on the FIFA executive committee, five were countries in which Aspire Football Dreams was operating, the proposal explained. Some in Aspire thought this would bolster Qatar’s chances for the World Cup. “

計劃書中解釋說，在FIFA執行委員會代表來自的24個國家中，足球之夢正在其中的五個國家運營。Aspire學院中的一些人認爲，這會加大卡塔爾贏得主辦權的可能性。

Success and Tension

成功和緊張

In January, Aspire Academy’s campus was buzzing as the final game of the Al Kass Cup approached. Elite youth teams from around the world were in Doha for an all-expenses-paid tournament. The Aspire squad, made up of Qatari boys, finished in eighth place, and the under-16 team from Aspire Football Dreams — featuring boys from Senegal, Cameroon and Ghana — reached the title game versus Real Madrid, a global powerhouse.

今年1月，隨着艾卡斯杯(Al Kass Cup)決賽的臨近，Aspire學院的校園裏一片興奮。來自世界各地的青少年精英球隊齊聚多哈，參加這次由主辦方承擔所有費用的足球聯賽。全部由卡塔爾學員組成的Aspire學院隊取得了第八名的成績，而來自Aspire足球之夢的U16球員組成的球隊——主要是來自塞內加爾、喀麥隆和加納的學員——將在決賽中對陣世界強隊皇家馬德里(Real Madrid)。

Jean Jules Sepp Mvondo, a 15-year-old Cameroonian, was the captain of the Football Dreams squad. A few years earlier, Jean Jules (known as Jiji) was among the hundreds of thousands of 13-year-old boys screened by Aspire scouts when they came to Africa.

今年15歲的喀麥隆男孩讓·朱爾·塞普·姆馮多(Jean Jules Sepp Mvondo)是足球之夢隊的隊長。幾年前，卡塔爾球探來到非洲後，測試了成百上千名13歲的男孩，而綽號吉吉(Jiji)的讓·朱爾就是其中之一。

“Football Dreams is a big thing in Cameroon,” said Jiji, who has four sisters and three brothers. He described how he cried when his father told him that he had gotten the call that he made it.

有四個姐妹和三個兄弟的吉吉說，“足球之夢在喀麥隆可是一件大事。”他回憶道，父親說自己接到了電話，通知他入選了，聽到父親的話，他哭了。

Another boy, Jalilu Haruna Mola, a 14-year-old from Ghana, explained how his father died when he was 5, leaving him behind with his mother and older brother. His mother sells rice for a living, Jalilu said, and his scholarship has allowed her to pay for his older brother’s university education. “She always tells me she’s proud of me,” Jalilu said.

賈裏魯·哈魯納·莫拉(Jalilu Haruna Mola)是一名14歲的加納男孩。他解釋說，父親在他五歲時去世了，自己和母親、哥哥相依爲命。母親靠賣大米爲生，由於他拿到了獎學金，母親纔給哥哥交上了大學學費。“她總是對我說，她爲我驕傲，”賈裏魯說。

Even if they are not wearing Qatar’s maroon jerseys, the players will bring Qatar the international respect the royal family has so far been unable to establish on its own soil.

即使他們沒有穿着卡塔爾隊的絳紅色球衣，這些球員仍然能爲卡塔爾帶來國際榮譽，正是卡塔爾王室迄今未能在國內建立起的那種聲譽。

“The next World Cup,” Bleicher said, “will be ‘our’ World Cup.”

“下一屆世界盃，”布萊謝爾說，“將是‘我們的’世界盃。”