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Drive around Khayelitsha
Drive around Khayelitsha, one of South Africa's biggest and fastest-growing townships, and football is impossible to ignore. There are hundreds of teams, thousands of players and five dedicated local football associations.
Makeshift goal frames stand amid the rolling debris-filled fields, with pitches of various shapes and sizes squeezed among the streets and settlements.
As the school buses and work taxis return for the evening, countless players can be seen shuffling towards their matches and training sessions as the sun goes down.
Football is thriving but, despite the foundation of a Fifa Football for Hope Centre during the 2010 World Cup, and initiatives from local top-flight team Cape Town City FC, there is still a big gap between Khayelitsha and the rest of the football world.
This is the kind of area - a mixture of formal and informal homes in a makeshift city of concrete and corrugated metal, sprawling across 'the flats' on Cape Town's outskirts - that was supposed to benefit from having football's showpiece event on its doorstep.
'Legacy' is a popular buzzword in major tournament bids, but for the millions of people who live here, football remains an escape but not a route to a career.
'Scouts don't come here often - it's perceived as too dangerous'
Notorious for gang violence and its criminal subculture, Khayelitsha is in the top 10 areas for crime in the whole of South Africa, with nearly 3,500 contact crimes (192 of them murder) reported in the township during 2018.
With both education and employment opportunities limited for young people growing up there, a lot of importance is placed upon football to help keep them on track.
"Football does wonders in our community to help keep the boys in school and off the streets," said Dumisani Madondile, 42, a long-term Khayelitsha resident.
"But there are still lots of barriers for them in life, let alone in football, particularly as potential aspiring players.
"Scouts don't come to townships very often - it's perceived as too dangerous. They will go to the academies in the affluent areas instead. There is very little pathway for these kids, in reality.
"There have been plenty of boys with the potential and the talent. But there's definitely more 'what could have been' stories than successful ones.
"The lasting impact of the World Cup? We don't see a legacy. It's not there."
