OF ALL the professions that trade on teenage fantasies, few are as brutal as football.Just 1% of the 10,000 youngsters in English clubs' academies go on to make a living in the sport. Two-thirds of those who earn a contract at 18 are out of the game by 21. The path is even tougher for prospects in Africa, as Sebastian Abbot shows in "The Away Game". His engrossing book follows the fortunes of a handful of teenagers who made it into Football Dreams, perhaps the most ambitious scouting programme in sporting history. Run by the Aspire Academy in Qatar, the search involved 5m boys across the developing world at a cost of more than $100m.
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