The World Cup 2014 – Brazil

4 stories where you could use the Olympic & Paralympic values

Story 1- Bayan Mahmud, the Ghanaian stowaway who signed for Argentine giants Boca Juniors from The Daily Telegraph

Three years ago an orphaned teenager landed in Argentina, travelling from Ghana as a stowaway. Now he has signed for Boca Juniors. He tells Harriet Alexander his remarkable story.

Bayan Mahmud poses for a photograph in front of a poster at Casa Amarilla facilities in Buenos Aires Photo: DANIEL GARCIA/AFP

As he sneaked into a cargo container under cover of darkness, 15- year-old Ghanaian orphan Bayan Mahmud had no idea what lay ahead of him. All he wanted was to escape the country where savage tribal violence had claimed the lives of both his parents and start a new life somewhere else.

Three years later the story of what happened next is being celebrated in Argentina, the football-crazy country where he arrived as an illegal immigrant after three weeks stowed away at sea.

Not only has Bayan, now 18, just signed a contract with Boca Juniors football club - the first foot on the ladder to potentially huge success - but he has also secured a sponsorship deal with Nike.

"My parents would have been very proud of me," he said, speaking to The Telegraph from the youth squad's Buenos Aires apartment. The club, one of Argentina's largest, has fielded such stars as Diego Maradona and Carlos Tévez.

"I'm very happy here," he said. It's a good place to be."

That Bayan survived at all is astonishing. His father, a professional footballer, played in Kumasi, Ghana's second city, but on his retirement moved north with his family to the town of Bawku and retrained as a herbal doctor.

"Life was good then," Bayan recalled. "I played a lot of football, without shoes or goalposts, just in the street with my brother and friends. But then the fighting started."

In 2005, aged 10, the boy returned home one day with his older brother to find his parents' bodies - both brutally killed in a tribal attack.

"Their death was a disaster for us," he said. "We went to live in an orphanage, but five years later the gunmen came back. Lots of people died. I thought I would be killed, so my brother and I ran – but I lost him."

With a few coins in his pocket, the 15-year-old made his way to the port town of Cape Coast, where he befriended local boys who earned money working as porters for the huge ships that docked there. He wanted to get to Europe, and one of the boys suggested he hide inside a container.

"I was very scared," he said, "but I had seen horrible things in Ghana too. I was leaving behind a lot of sadness."

Bayan attends a first division football match at La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires (DANIEL GARCIA/AFP)

All he had with him was a little "gari" - cassava flour - and some water, but when hunger drove him from the container he was befriended by an African sailor who hid him and brought him food. "If the ship's officers knew about me I would have been sent straight back to Ghana," he said.

When the ship arrived not in Europe but in Argentina, a country of which he had never heard, he set off on foot for the capital where fellow Africans helped him find a place in a

home for refugees. One day a group of Argentine youths asked him to join their kickabout game of football - and then asked the fleet-footed youngster back every Saturday. "I loved it," he said.

Spotted by a Boca Juniors scout, he was taken to trials and offered him a contract with the youth squad, a coveted position that earns him a total of £200 a month. His contract with Nike is worth a further £2,700 a year - giving a combined income unthinkable back in Boku.

The vast majority of the country's footballers are white but Argentinans have taken "the Ghanaian Maradona" to heart. He has almost 10,000 followers on Twitter, and dozens of Facebook fan pages, while the country's newspapers have delighted in his story, with headlines stating "I want to be the first black man to play for Argentina."

Now Bayan hopes soon to receive his Argentine nationality, to complement his heavily- accented Argentine Spanish. He has become a fan of local asados– barbeques – but still prefers Ghanaian "high life" pop music to the tango.

And, he added, "I would love to go back, and to see my brother. I miss him very much – we were like twins."

At times I remember those days I lived on the streets back in Cape Coast, hustling and suffering, and 'Oh God, thank you so much'. It wasn't easy. I did all that to survive.

- Bayan Mahmud

Story 2 - The Ivory Coast's 2006 World Cup Team

In 2006, during the midst of a civil war, the African country of Côte d'Ivore (Ivory Coast) qualified for its first World Cup in team history.

And for the first time in years, something took precedence over the war.

Côte d'Ivoire qualified through a qualifying group which included African powerhouses Cameroon and Egypt, despite losing home and away to the former. On the last day of qualification, they confirmed

their spot with a 3–1 [2] win over Sudan, while Cameroon faltered and could only manage a 1–1 draw at home to Egypt.

The qualification of the Côte d'Ivoire national football team even brought about a temporary peace agreement during the First Ivorian Civil War. The team helped to secure a truce in 2006 when they qualified, bringing warring parties together, and convinced President Laurent Gbagbo to restart peace talks.[3]

Côte d'Ivoire lost their opening game 2–1 in the 2006 World Cup in Germany to an Argentine side. The goals for Argentina came from Hernán Crespo and Javier Saviola. Côte d'Ivoire's goal came from Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. They lost their second match to the Netherlands by the same scoreline and were thus eliminated from the tournament. The Netherlands' goals came from a Robin van Persie free-kick in the 23rd minute and a Ruud van Nistelrooy strike in the 27th minute. Bakari Koné scored in the 38th minute for the Africans to pull the score to 2–1. Côte d'Ivoire's final game was against Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian team scored two quick goals and it appeared that the Côte d'Ivoire was destined for a three-loss World Cup campaign. However, the Africans came back, led by two goals from Aruna Dindane, and won the game 3–2 to finish in third place

It may have only been for a brief few weeks, but the entire country abandoned their ongoing struggle to come together and cheer on their beloved Elephants.

A truly heartwarming story, Côte d'Ivore's 2006 World Cup team captured a nation and brought a country at odds together.

Story 3 - Eddie Afekafe – Community Inclusion Officer – Manchester City FC

Has been ignored before. After three years in a young offenders institution, in his words 'a black guy with a criminal record and an M16 postcode', people would not even let him clean their toilets.

But when he stood on that stage in Zurich before the 22 members of FIFA's executive committee and a TV audience approaching a billion, the very least he thought they would do was listen.

Still smiling: Eddie Afekafe back home after his time in Zurich 'Football has changed my life,' he declared before skilfully introducing David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham and touching on his own uplifting story. A story that perfectly demonstrates the power of sport and, for Afekafe, the potential power of a World Cup.

For Afekafe, a community inclusion officer for Manchester City who uses football to try to ease the gangland problems on the streets of Moss Side, a World Cup in England would have been about so much more than the competition. It would have been about the impact it could have had on people's lives, long after the teams had gone and way beyond the shores of this country.

It was what the FA's Football United programme would have been geared towards. But the two votes England secured suggested 20 FIFA officials couldn't care less. Some of them had clearly lied as they said that they would vote for the Englad World Cup bid, but instead they are sending the 2022 World Cup to oil-rich Qatar.

Afekafe thought they were better than that. Not least after making a similar presentation to Sepp Blatter at 10 Downing Street. The president of FIFA certainly gave the impression he was interested.

'There was this big thing made about legacy,' said Afekafe in the only interview he has given since the bid. 'FIFA talking about how they want the World Cup to reach people beyond the pitch. How they wanted it to make an impact. But had they been serious about what they were proposing, I think we would have got more votes.'

If they didn't listen to Afekafe's story then perhaps they will read about it now. After all, FIFA seem to pay a lot of attention to the English press, so we can assume this interview will register with them.

In good company: Eddie with David Beckham and FIFA chief Jerome Valcke

Football, they should understand, did more than change Afekafe's life. It rescued him from a life of serious crime. Gave him a role, a sense of purpose and aspirations. And more than that, it gave him a sense of pride and a desire to help others.

He was like a lot of kids from the rougher parts of Manchester. Bright enough to secure seven GCSEs and consider a career as a physiotherapist but so far down society's ladder he found it difficult to climb, even after studying sports science and human biology at college.

By royal appointment: Afekafe praised Prince William saying 'the country should be proud he will be King'

'I played football for the school, for local teams, but I'd realised I was never going to be a footballer and live that dream,' he said. 'After finishing college at 19, I left home and moved in with my girlfriend of the time. We didn't have much. I was on Jobseekers, trying to run a house, build a future.

'I guess I just wanted more and I obviously ended up on the wrong path. I should have been more patient but I wasn't prepared to wait. I did something stupid, got convicted for an attempted robbery and received six years.'

He served three for his part in trying to steal a safe from a shop with an imitation firearm. 'Prison's not a nice place for anyone,' he said. 'It wasn't the best period in my life, but it's part of my life which has made me who I am today. I made a mistake which put me in prison, but I wasn't going to settle for being an ex-convict or another black boy from the hood.

'I served three years, came home in December 2005 and decided it was time I got my life together. Some 12 weeks after I was released, I walked into Moss Side job centre and the

Prince's Trust were advertising a voluntary programme. I asked to enrol and I was fortunate enough to be picked. I received that letter on my 23rd birthday.

City slicker: Afekafe has grasped the opportunity presented to him by the Blues

'After I finished the Prince's Trust, they gave me a bit of funding to become a Level Two coach in football. And then I met Rachel Wood, from Progress to Work. I expressed my interest in being a football coach, so we googled all the local football clubs in Manchester and printed off a very, very long list.

'We started at A and contacted them, offering my services, leaving voicemails and emails. We got all the way down to M and hadn't had a single call back, no response, nothing positive.

'The next name was Manchester City. I told Rachel it was a waste of time even ringing. I thought if the non-League teams, the pub teams, if nobody else could get back to me, why would a Premier League club show any interest?

'Rachel wasn't taking no for an answer. She dialled the number. We had an argument. I was giving it "Hang up the phone". I wasn't a happy bunny. The phone rang anyway, she put it to my ear and a lovely lady on reception answered.

'I was bouncing off the walls, giving it everything. "I wanna do this, I wanna do that". She was like, "Right, do us a favour and put it in writing". And I got a call back from Alex Williams, who has turned out to be my boss. I'd been out of prison 12 months when I started in a voluntary capacity. I'd applied for everything. I couldn't even clean the toilets for non- League.'

I asked him to reveal the worst job he did manage to secure in that time and he refused. 'Because somebody will be doing that job today,' he said. 'A job's a job. I'd have been as proud to work at McDonald's as I am working here. Being from where I am, it was just as hard before I got a criminal record.'

But he was born for the role he performs, working alongside mentor and friend Dave Coppin in the club's Community office.

'My past is very relevant to my role here,' he said. 'I work with a lot of the youngsters from deprived backgrounds who are maybe lacking a bit of direction and might need support. Because of my past they understand that I get it.

'I work in schools, colleges, universities and prisons, and with youth groups. I do coaching but the bulk is more youth inclusion and real community work. It's more life skills than football skills.

'It is extremely rewarding. We bring kids together from different areas. One of the projects, Kickz, the national flagship project used for the bid, runs from Platt Lane. And that borders on three different rival gang areas - Fallowfield, Moss Side and Rusholme.

'And they come together as one for six hours a week. They play football as a united community. Street politics get left at the door. All for the love of the game.

'That's very, very rare. I am 28 and the gang thing has always been part of inner-city Manchester culture. We provide the one place they can go and know, for a couple of hours, they are 100 per cent safe.'

It was why the World Cup bid was so important to Afekafe. 'I was absolutely devastated we didn't win,' he said. 'The Football United scheme was going to be global. To create new projects, based around the ethos of Kickz, to build safer, stronger communities across the world. They would have replicated some of the work Dave began in Moss Side. Taken that model globally.'

A Prince's Trust ambassador, the recipient of the 'Kickz inspiring young person of the year award' in 2009 and an engaging communicator, you can see why the 2018 team asked Afekafe to front their bid. Just as you can see why Prince William, Cameron and Beckham warmed to him.

'Everybody I've met has been amazing and they all treated me as an equal,' he said. 'Prince William and I are the same age but obviously from two completely different worlds. But he made me feel like we weren't worlds apart, and it's a credit to him how in touch he is with normal people.

'Before the presentation he gave me a lot of encouragement; kept telling me I would be fine. He's an exceptional man and the country should be proud he will be King.'

Story 4 - The inspiring story of how Haiti's young footballers overcame tragedy to stand on the brink of Olympic glory

2010

Haiti's footballers, who travelled here to the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics cloaked in tragedy and sadness, are riding a massive wave of sympathy to stand on the brink of winning the most unlikeliest gold medal of these Games. The country's boy’s footballers brought some much needed joy to their earthquake-stricken nation as they remarkably defied the odds to book their spot in the boy’s final with a 2-0 win over Singapore at the Jalan Besar Stadium last night. The Caribbean country made global headlines at the start of the year after a devastating earthquake ripped it apart and left their sports system, along with everything else, in tatters. The disaster, which occurred on January 12, killed an estimated 220,000 people and left over 180,000 homes and 5,000 schools either damaged or completely destroyed. Around two million people were living in the area that was most affected by the earthquake

and nearly all of them were made homeless as a result of it. The repercussions of the disaster are far from over with 1.5 million people currently living in camps and 100,000 of them at critical risk from storms and flooding. With such utter devastation hitting their homeland, Haiti were applauded for simply turning up at these Games. Little was expected of them, especially after they lost their opening match 9-0 to Bolivia. But the resilient team, formed only six weeks ago, staged an unbelievable comeback in the competition as they claimed a dramatic 2-1 victory over Vanuatu in their second group game at the end of last week to advance to the semi-finals against Singapore.

Haiti’s heroic young side went into the match as huge underdogs against the hosts and were outplayed for much of the first half before Jean Bonhomme’s header in the 38th minute gave them a surprise 1-0 lead at the break.

Singapore dominated the second half as they had the first but were unable to produce a goal and then in the final minute of minute of normal time, Haiti’s captain Daniel Gedeon’s scored a penalty to secure his side an astonishing 2-0 victory.

The win means that Singapore are relegated to the bronze medal match against Montenegro while Haiti go on to contest the gold medal on Wednesday (August 25) where they face a rematch against Bolivia.

Bolivia, will start the boy’s final as heavy favourites following their demolition of Haiti earlier in the competition.

But - win or lose in the final - Haiti done their country proud and earned the respect of the world by unexpectedly coming from a country in chaos and guaranteeing themselves a medal.

Haiti’s coach Pierre Sonche admitted that reaching the final is priceless for the team because of the joy the teams’ achievements will bring to the ravaged country, particularly as it again stands on the edge of crisis after pop star Wyclef Jean was controversially disqualified from running for President in the upcoming elections because he failed to fulfil residency rules, sparking fears that the decision would cause civil unrest