Stefan Lovgren

LAGOS, NIGERIA - An oppressive mid-day sun bakes the pot-holed sand pitch where one of this massive city's many informal soccer clubs is training.

On the sidelines, Tony Chibuzor leads his squad in a fervent prayer. His club, called the Zion Football Academy, is playing next.

"Oh, Lord, you are the God who remembered John Obi Mikel, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho — remember us as you remembered them," the 19-year-old captain pleads to a chorus of "Hallelujahs" from his teammates.

"Connect us to people who matter. Let them come and see us play so they can take us to Europe."

Throughout deeply religious Nigeria — and soccer-mad West Africa — it's a prayer echoed by millions of young Africans desperate to escape the poverty at home and seek a professional soccer future and fortune in Europe.

Their dreams are fueled by the remarkable success that many African players have enjoyed in recent years in some of Europe's top leagues.

"They all want to be the next Michael Essien or Didier Drogba," says Christian Okpara, sports editor for Nigeria's Guardian newspaper, referring to the Ghanaian and Ivorian superstars who play for Chelsea in the English Premier League.

With the African conquest of European club soccer, there's a growing sense that Africa could become soccer's future powerhouse.

Slideshow Teams of the 2010 World Cup Shots of every country heading to South Africa, from Brazil to the United States

Next year's World Cup in South Africa will be the tournament’s first time in Africa. There is a genuine conviction, even among some seasoned soccer observers, that the time may have come for an African team, say Ghana or Ivory Coast, to challenge Europe's and South America's traditional dominance in world soccer and lay claim to its greatest prize.

There's no doubting the African talent waiting in the wings.

Last month, Ghana became the first African team to win the under-20 World Cup, beating Brazil 4-3 on penalties in the final. Nigeria was expected to retain the under-17 World Cup title it won two years ago. However, the "Super Eaglets," as the Nigerian team is known, fell by a lone goal to Switzerland in the final. The Nigerians had impressed in the tournament with their quick-paced passing and relentless attacking game.

But recent African achievements mask a grim reality: at home, African soccer is in disarray.

The migration of thousands of African players abroad has decimated domestic leagues, including Nigeria's. The country is the world's second largest exporter of soccer players to Europe after Brazil.

"This migration certainly benefits individual players, but the local game becomes bereft of high-quality talent, and as a result people lose interest in it," says Paul Darby, a sports studies scholar at the University of Ulster in Belfast, Northern Ireland, who has researched the issue in Ghana.

Twenty years ago, Nigeria's Premier League drew large crowds and offered heated rivalries. Today, attendance at games has plummeted. Many of the clubs are struggling financially. Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, no longer has a team in the top division.

Most of the fans prefer to follow African players in European teams.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos

During a recent Chelsea-Manchester United Premier League clash, the normally chaotic Lagos streets thinned out as fans, many sporting the team jerseys, headed for the hundreds of makeshift shacks set up around the city by local entrepreneurs cashing in on the locals' rabid interest in English soccer.

"People in Nigeria follow the English Premier League closer than English people do," says Felix Awogu, the Nigeria manager of Supersport, the continent's largest sports broadcaster.

"The typical man on the street can give you the line-up of the last three games for Man United or Chelsea."

In Ghana, Essien, the combative Chelsea midfielder, is treasured as a national hero.

On a recent Wednesday morning, Essien, in Ghana for his country's final World Cup qualifying game, traveled to the modest village where he grew up, some 45 minutes outside of the capital Accra for what he had hoped would be a quiet visit.