Tales from 'the beautiful game'
Coaching football on death row, making history as the top World Cup goal scorer, and becoming the first black footballer to play for Chelsea.
Moses Akatugba used to coach a football team made up of prisoners on death row in Delta State, Nigeria. Moses was a death row prisoner himself. He had been arrested when he was 16 and accused of stealing mobile phones in an armed robbery. He says he didn’t do it, and claims that he was tortured into confessing. His case was taken up by human rights campaigners and he was eventually pardoned. But not before he had spent ten years behind bars – the last two of them on death row. This interview was first broadcast in 2018.
Meet the so-called 'queen of football' Marta Vieira da Silva, a Brazilian footballer who has been named Fifa Female World Player of the Year six times and has scored more World Cup goals than any other player. Our reporter Irene Caselli spoke to the legend back in 2018. This interview was part of 'A Girls' Game' - a project run by the European Journalism Centre.
Back in the 1980s, there were very few professional black footballers in England. Paul Canoville was the first to play for Chelsea. He was over the moon when he was signed, but on his debut he was booed and racially abused by his own fans. In this interview from 2018 he tells Jo Fidgen how he fought back and how his career paved the way for many other black players.
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Picture: Brazilian footballer Marta Vieira da Silva
Credit: Buda Mendes/Getty Images
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