Like many young men in Italy, these amateur soccer players in the small Sicilian town of Mineo dream of stardom on the field. But for this group, having made it this far is already an achievement.
ASD Mineo, as their squad is called, is made up of African migrants who risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean in hopes of finding asylum – a journey that has killed many others in shipwrecks.
25 Jan 2014 . MINEO, ITALY. Reuters/Tony Gentile
Their team, the first of its kind in Italy, was created and funded by the managers of the Mineo centre for asylum seekers, pictured above. It is one of Europe's largest such shelters, hosting some 4,000 migrants from 40 nations.
The idea of forming a soccer team was hatched by the immigration centre’s director Sebastiano Maccarrone after he watched residents' pick-up games. He asked a former professional player and employee of the shelter to form a team of the best men.
ASD Mineo is now registered in the lowest category of Italy's official soccer pyramid, which groups 600 divisions and in which, in theory, any team can rise to the top of the league, or Serie A. The team is on track to advance to the next division in its first season.
26 Jan 2014 . MINEO, ITALY. Reuters/Tony Gentile
In this country of soccer fanatics, ASD Mineo has become a test of racial integration. Though many Sicilians criticise local, national and European authorities for failing to provide enough resources to cope with the influx of immigrants, ASD Mineo has not suffered public resentment.
This is not always the case at the national level, where racism has been a constant problem in football. Though top-flight teams include black and Muslim players, stadiums often echo with monkey chants. One of Italy's best footballers, Mario Balotelli, a Sicilian-born son of Ghanaian immigrants who plays forward for AC Milan and Italy's national team, has sometimes been on the receiving end.
26 Jan 2014 . MINEO, ITALY. Reuters/Tony Gentile
Nineteen-year-old Mohammad from Togo is a defensive player for ASD Mineo and sports a similar Mohawk haircut to the AC Milan star Balotelli.
"In my village some people called me Balotelli, and then when I arrived in Italy they started calling me Balotelli," he said.
Mohammad was orphaned at age 12 after his parents died of infection from a ritual where he and they were cut with machetes. Mohammed still has deep crisscrossing scars on his thighs from the experience.
The teenager says he left his village and, after crossing the Sahara desert, was imprisoned in Libya for not having travel documents. He managed to get out of jail and find passage on a boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Eventually he ended up in Sicily and is now part the ASD Mineo soccer team, which is hopeful of progressing through the league.
"We can make it all the way to Serie A," Mohammad’s fellow 19-year-old player Musa, from Gambia, said after a recent win.