Thread by @cworswick

First time in Chocó, in the wettest city on Earth: Quibdó. Living under permanent cloud cover, "it rains here every single day," says taxi driver Wizzie.

Despite more than 1/3 living in extreme poverty, this region is also one of Colombian footy's biggest producers of talent. 🧵

Yet there isn't a single grass pitch in this Norwich-sized city (130k). In fact, until 2017, there wasn't even an artificial pitch in Quibdó. "Just wastelands of mud & dust," says youth coach Yubely Mosquera.

For 60 yrs, Colombia's poorest region had been asking for a stadium.

Past and present Colombia stars like Jackson Martínez, Carlos Sánchez and Carlos Cuesta all grew up dancing with a a ball across these precarious rock-strewn surfaces.

Many other promising careers were cut short by injury before they had even begun.

Boris Barbello, now a barber, is one such example. Once a talented footballer, he had to stop playing after a nasty ankle break suffered on the Alamos pitch.

"Jackson, Wason Rentería, Ezequiel Palomeque played here," he recalls. "At nights and weekends, this place is packed."

But the pandemic has accentuated poverty in barrios like these and turned Quibdó into one of the world's most dangerous cities.

Now, armed gangs control who comes in and who gets out. They make you paint your house, clean the street or even enforce night-time curfews.

"A kid will kill for 200 mil (£40)," Boris says. "And everyone has to pay the vacuna ('security' fee) to stay safe. Almost every day last year folk were murdered."

My trip to Los Alamos is cut short. The "autodefensas" (paramilitaries) show up - I didn't ask permission to enter.

Two of these sand and stone pitches have, at last, been improved.

At Chipi Chipi, local and central gov't money helped lay a synthetic 8-a-side pitch & build a new stand in May this year.

"It's obviously better, but no kid from here can afford to play there," Boris moans.

Across town is the Estadio La Normal, the city's main stadium. In 2017 it was renovated with a proper synthetic pitch installed. It now hosts 4,300 fans.

The dream is that one day Quibdó will have its own professional team for the 1st time.

But that won't happen any time soon.

A 40-min drive south of Quibdó, dropped in the middle of the jungle lies another stadium.

The Estadio de Chocó was built in 2008.

Its pitch was imported from Canada and given a 3-star rating during a 2011 Fifa visit.

Yet it's been embroiled in a corruption scandal ever since.

After the 1st phase of construction was completed costing £3m, work suddenly stopped. Nobody ever finished the job.

Left to rot among the weeds, the stadium has no water or electricity.

Instead, snakes slither through the grass, while mosquitos buzz over stagnant pools.

This is where Chocó's 1st professional team where meant to play, in the stadium named after a local hero: Francisco Maturana, Colombia's most famous coach.

But his name is nowhere to be seen.

Like most of Chocó, the 15k-stadium has long been forgotten and abandoned.

After 13 yrs of decay, the once dubbed "el Maracaná del Pacífico" is now entangled in a lengthy court case to discover whose pockets were filled with the £3m.

Yet Chocó continues to produce talent. And footy remains one of the few tools for helping a region plagued by violence.

Wagner Mosquera is a businessman, politician and journalist. He ran for mayor of Quibdó in 2019, coming 4th behind the elected Martin Sánchez.

Now the pair are working together on Chocó's most ambitious football project: the Copa Colonia.

Featuring both male and female tournaments, the idea is to eventually have a team from each of Chocó's 30 municipalties competing in the annual U17s event held in local capital Quibdó.

In its inaugural year this Nov, 10 municipalties were represented in the 12-team tournament.

Amazingly, nothing like this had been tried before in Chocó.

Just getting teams to Quibdó is a logistical nightmare. Some areas are so isolated that there are no roads. Instead, teams have to pile on boats and travel for hours down rivers that armed groups control.

"We want to have a professional team in Chocó one day & so this is where our plan starts," Mosquera explains. "This is our base, every yr we need to make it bigger and better."

The 1st year's a success. Local interest is strong, it's well organised and int'l scouts are present.

In the final, Quibdó beat Cértegui with both teams qualifying for the Copa Colonia Super Liga, a January mini-tournament also held in Quibdó with the U17s from two of Colombia's biggest clubs: América & Nacional.

It's just a friendly event, but this is still big news in Chocó.

At a meeting with Quibdó mayor Martin Sánchez, he argues football has a vital role to play.

"Armed gangs control the city and boys and girls are being forced to join them," he reflects. "But this cup is an example of how there is an alternative, and it's marvellous to see."

These small steps also have another important goal in sight.

"We can't afford to buy entry into the second division, but we are very interested in having a team in the third," Mayor Sánchez reveals. "Can you imagine what that would mean for young kids here?"