The journey usually starts on a bare patch of ground, as children kick up dust and celebrate under the shadows of trees. Sometimes it starts on school fields or makeshift pitches, thousands of African youngsters, chasing balls and dreams of fortune and superstardom.
Dreams they have been sold — and ones their families have bought. Promises of trials at huge clubs, at Real Madrid and AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United, made by men who claim to be agents with contacts across the sea.
That journey rarely ends at Old Trafford.