Survival the name of game for Gabon's pros

Hard-up players forced to quit African country's crumbling league

Dressed in a red Real Madrid jersey smeared with white, Gamamba Souleimane applies a fresh coat of paint to the walls of a small house in Gabon's capital Libreville.

At 28, when he should have been at the peak of his sporting career, this one-time professional soccer player has traded the ball for a paint roller and his cleats for work boots.

He has given up on playing soccer, his lifelong passion, simply to make ends meet.