Thank you for downloading from the BBC.

The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use go to BBCWorldService.com

Slash Podcasts.

BBC World Service. I'm Farai Mungazi with this week's documentary,

Piti the Poor Soccer Stars.

The story of a remarkable phenomenon in African football.

Over the next two weeks, I want to find out why so many African players go from this to this.

You know, one or the way you're living now don't think about the past.

If you think about the past then you're going to destroy yourself.

So I don't think about that.

What happens when you start to think of the past?

I start feeling sorry about myself.

Just forget it, go on, don't come back.

That's Elijah Litana, once a big star of African football,

and part of a big problem for the sport across the continent.

So many players like him have made it big from humble beginnings,

only to blow their riches and end up right back where they started.

In this series I want to find out how and why this happens.

I mean Elijah's home country, Zambia this week, to gauge the problem.

And next week I'll look at one country offering some solutions South Africa.

But this is an issue all over the continent.

And it's about far more than football alone.

...