
By Phil Bildner, Jesse Joshua Watson (Illustrator)
A boy's soccer dreams clash with apartheid's barriers in South Africa.
Hector, a young soccer enthusiast from Johannesburg, dreams of playing beyond his township's limits. Apartheid's grip makes this impossible until Nelson Mandela's release sparks change. As South Africa's Bafana Bafana triumphs in the African Cup of Nations, Hector sees a glimmer of hope. Can sports unite a divided nation and make dreams a reality?
As a boy, Hector loved playing soccer in his small Johannesburg township. He dreamed of playing on a real pitch with the boys from another part of the city, but apartheid made that impossible. Then, in 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and apartheid began to crumble. The march toward freedom in South Africa was a slow one, but when the beloved Bafana Bafana national soccer team won the African Cup of Nations, Hector realized that dreams once impossible could now come true.
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