ROSARNO, Italy – A
soccer team fielding only African migrants is hoping to win hearts and games in
one of Italy's poorest regions, where locals and foreigners once clashed in
bloody fights. A local Catholic charity manages the team, Koa Bosco, near the
town Rosarno in southern Italy.
In 2010, clashes between residents there and migrants who work
picking crops in the region left 38 people wounded. The fights began when two
migrants were shot with a pellet gun in an attack that migrants blamed on
racism.
Koa Bosco captain Yaya Diallo, from Ivory Coast, arrived on
Lampedusa island, near Sicily, in 2010. Hundreds of thousands of migrants in
smugglers boats have reached southern Italy in recent years.
Coach Domenico Mammoliti, at a recent game, praised his team's
"joy" in playing.
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