KEVIN MCCALLUM: ‘Rollaball’ celebrates the sport of beggars and choosers
Accra’s disabled take part in a game of skate soccer they hope will lead them out of the spiral of poverty
21 June 2024 - 05:00
Most Sundays, on a deserted taxi rank in downtown Accra, men who cannot walk, whose legs that have been paralysed by polio or by accident, become heroes. For 40 minutes, this dusty, 800m² piece of asphalt is their kingdom, an arena where they are both the gladiators and kings.
Skate soccer. The name says it all, and, yet, scarcely does the spectacle justice. It is a rolling thunder of a sport, football played by teams of seven on homemade skateboards fashioned with planks and whatever can be found or donated. It is fast and furious, skilful and sly, ballsy and brutal...
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