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The Dream Factory - Latin American Soccer(14 images)
From the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego the passion for thousands upon thousands of youths is football. In the continent where the gap between rich and poor is the most marked, there are few opportunities to break with the same cycle of poverty into which the majority is born. For many the only example of someone getting ahead & out of the ?barrio? or ?favela? are those very few who go onto...
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  • Boys play football in the Mare 'favela'. The area is contested by two rival drugs trafficking gangs, known as commandos, and is one of the most complicated 'favelas' in the city. By photographer Paul Smith
    BRA FBall M...jpg
  • Boys play football barefoot in a 'favela' on the outskirts of Bauru, the city where football legend Pele began his career and where he played as a child barefoot in the streets. By photographer Paul Smith
    BRA FBall B...jpg
  • Boys play football in the community of San José del Pinar - a settlement established by conflict displaced families. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL BEL Foo...jpg
  • Boys play football on a pitch made by the community of San José del Pinar - a settlement established by conflict displaced families. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL BEL Foo...jpg
  • Playing football in the community of San José del Pinar - a settlement established by families displaced by the conflict. Bello, Valle de Aburrá, Antioquia. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL BEL Foo...jpg
  • Urbanización La Playa - appartment blocks & boys playing footbal. Medellín. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Foo...jpg
  • Youths play football early in the morning at a football 'semillero' - literally seed-bed - in the Caicedo area of the city of Medellín. Dogged by years of violence, which has abated somewhat in recent years, football has always been used as a strategy to give youths an alternative activity which will keep them from just hanging out on the streets and perhaps drifting into drugs or criminal or violent activities. Ironically many gang leaders have been the sponsors of teams and soccer training in the poor neighbourhoods. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Foo...jpg
  • Boys play football in a hillside street in Santa Domingo/Popular neighbourhood - a particulary poor & rough neighbourhood of the city. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Foo...jpg
  • Young men play football on a dirt pitch close to the community of 'Esperanza en Dios' (Hope in God) - a settlement founded by displaced and poor families after an eviction of their first occupation by local authorities. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL BEL Foo...jpg
  • Youths play football early in the morning at a football 'semillero' - literally seed-bed - in the Caicedo area of the city of Medellín. Dogged by years of violence, which has abated somewhat in recent years, football has always been used as a strategy to give youths an alternative activity which will keep them from just hanging out on the streets and perhaps drifting into drugs or criminal or violent activities. Ironically many gang leaders have been the sponsors of teams and soccer training in the poor neighbourhoods. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Foo...jpg
  • High on the valley side men play a Sunday morning gane of football with the city of Medellín & much of the Aburrá Valley in the background. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Foo...jpg
  • A game of street football in the Paris neighbourhood of Bello. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Foo...jpg
  • A young man brings down a football that became stuck in a mango tree in the Belén La Capilla neighbourhood in the south of the city of Medellín.<br />
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Un jóven baja una pelota de un árbol de mango en el barrio Belén La Capilla en el sur de la ciudad de Medellín. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Gen...jpg
  • Playing soccer in the early morning in Barrio Caicedo. By photographer Paul Smith
    COL MED Spo...jpg