TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by maceo4 »

airwolex wrote:
Calculator wrote:I was wondering why you Europeans don't do it with other players from their neighboring countries. How come we don't see a European team dominated by players from another European countries. The question is legitimate! Maybe African nations should start recruiting from other nations. We already have a working formula from France! Or is our ego to big to allow it to happen!
No sir...they do it all the time

Switzerland was full of Albanian players and guys from the Balkans. I don't even know if they had more than a handful of native players in their squad.

Austria is the same.

There are many Polish and Turkish players that have played for Germany over the years.There are also many more European players playing for France. Hernandez is Spanish, Kocieny is Polish.

The English always have a handful of Irish, Welsh and Scots playing for them. Gerrard, Rooney have Irish roots...Owen has Welsh roots.

This is not new.
Even Croatia has a bunch of players who are immigrants or children of immigrants. And none are black.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by airwolex »

Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by camex »

airwolex wrote:
Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
Adebayor played for Togo
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by maceo4 »

airwolex wrote:
Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
Yep saw a show about it before the WC final game, you can read more here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la ... story.html
The four most successful teams in this World Cup — semifinalists England, Belgium, Croatia and France — all have multinational national teams.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by Damunk »

maceo4 wrote:
airwolex wrote:
Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
Yep saw a show about it before the WC final game, you can read more here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la ... story.html
The four most successful teams in this World Cup — semifinalists England, Belgium, Croatia and France — all have multinational national teams.
But Nigeria that is looking to claim players form it's talent pool in the diaspora is wrong to do so, according to some. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Yes, let us develop our league and youth academies but nobody is going to clap for us because we refused on yeye 'principle' to recruit the very best Nigerians into the SE wherever they might be found.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by maceo4 »

Damunk wrote:
maceo4 wrote:
airwolex wrote:
Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
Yep saw a show about it before the WC final game, you can read more here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la ... story.html
The four most successful teams in this World Cup — semifinalists England, Belgium, Croatia and France — all have multinational national teams.
But Nigeria that is looking to claim players form it's talent pool in the diaspora is wrong to do so, according to some. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Yes, let us develop our league and youth academies but nobody is going to clap for us because we refused on yeye 'principle' to recruit the very best Nigerians into the SE wherever they might be found.
My thing is if we are begging to recruit the left overs then we will never be able to compete with the top teams, in Croatia's case these people are immigrating into the country, they are not necessarily looking for left overs from other countries academies like we are doing. Our focus should be on improving what we have at home first, that's a longer term solution than cherry picking players who are on the fringes of the country that developed them.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by camex »

maceo4 wrote:
Damunk wrote:
maceo4 wrote:
airwolex wrote:
Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
Yep saw a show about it before the WC final game, you can read more here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la ... story.html
The four most successful teams in this World Cup — semifinalists England, Belgium, Croatia and France — all have multinational national teams.
But Nigeria that is looking to claim players form it's talent pool in the diaspora is wrong to do so, according to some. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Yes, let us develop our league and youth academies but nobody is going to clap for us because we refused on yeye 'principle' to recruit the very best Nigerians into the SE wherever they might be found.
My thing is if we are begging to recruit the left overs then we will never be able to compete with the top teams, in Croatia's case these people are immigrating into the country, they are not necessarily looking for left overs from other countries academies like we are doing. Our focus should be on improving what we have at home first, that's a longer term solution than cherry picking players who are on the fringes of the country that developed them.
I am not either against recruiting in the diaspora, but it should be the exception and not the norm.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by Benedict Iroha »

Out of two evils...I rather black players represent France than Belgium.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by Damunk »

maceo4 wrote:
Damunk wrote:
maceo4 wrote:
airwolex wrote:
Or can you imagine a kid born in Lagos going to play for Benin Republic or Cameroon?
There was a time the Beninoise team was full of Nigerians. Omotoyossi was their star man then. I don't think it's the case now.

Mace,
Did not know that about Croatia. Just shows that were it not for the fact that the French foreigners were mostly black, you would not have realized how mixed they were.
Yep saw a show about it before the WC final game, you can read more here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la ... story.html
The four most successful teams in this World Cup — semifinalists England, Belgium, Croatia and France — all have multinational national teams.
But Nigeria that is looking to claim players form it's talent pool in the diaspora is wrong to do so, according to some. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Yes, let us develop our league and youth academies but nobody is going to clap for us because we refused on yeye 'principle' to recruit the very best Nigerians into the SE wherever they might be found.
My thing is if we are begging to recruit the left overs then we will never be able to compete with the top teams, in Croatia's case these people are immigrating into the country, they are not necessarily looking for left overs from other countries academies like we are doing. Our focus should be on improving what we have at home first, that's a longer term solution than cherry picking players who are on the fringes of the country that developed them.
I understand your frustration but it is pure sentiment that makes you see it as a 'left-over' matter. We are not Brazil, or Germany, or Spain, or France.

Hard as it might be to acknowledge, there are some countries that can raise three national teams that could compete credibly at the World Cup. The talent that France alone left behind should be enough to underline for you the fact that their 'left-overs' are well worth raiding if the players are willing and eligible to play for someone else.

Pride can only take you so far. The 'left-over' principle is at play every day at club level. Mo Sallah and Kevin De Bryne were Chelsea 'left-overs'. The young Pogba was a Man Utd 'left-over' until he was gratefully bought back a few years later by the same team. Griezman, Zanetti, Costa all had their heartbreaks after being deemed not good enough i.e. 'left-overs' early in their careers before excelling at the very top a few years later.

When you have an abundance of riches, there is only so much talent you can hoard. Some elite countries are so blessed that they have as many as five world-class players vying for the same position. Inevitably, some of them will never make the very top grade in those elite footballing nations - but they might never come to that realisation. Or they might realise it too late. But the reality is, those 'left-overs' are likely to be better than the best many less-endowed countries will ever have to offer.

Until we start to produce world-class players of the adult game on Nigerian home soil, we will be FOOLISH not to take advantage of the number of foreign-born Nigerian talents sprouting all over the globe. Nigerians don't even have the time to wait for the Nigerian league to be nurtured to the level it is producing 'world-class' talent anyway. I bet you the majority of these clamoring for 'developing' our local league will NOT be able to tolerate the inevitable poor results which are guaranteed during that same development process.

However, I guess you could always solve the 'left-over' problem by banning Nigerian men and women from having sex outside the borders of the country.
That might work... :idea:
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by Cristao II »

Ekorian wrote:
Tobi17 wrote:The actual question nobody has bothered to ask or ponder upon is why French African players born home or abroad always turn out to be world class in the long run, while the English speaking African kids either end up as below average or decent at best? case in point the only decent English born Nigerian player we've seen so far is Dele Alli... Ghana has Welbeck. Meanwhile countries like DRC, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Cameroon etc always export their best talents to their former colonial territories like Belgium and France...makes you wonder why Anglophone African exports aren't as good as their Francophone counterparts.
You guys are always overanalyzing things with your conjecture. This has nothing to do with French or English Africans. And why are you comparing the experience or exposure of someone like Dele Alli that plays for underachieving team like Tottenham to players like Mbappe( PSG), Kante ( Chelsea), Pogba ( Man U) Umtiti( Barcelona ) and Matuidi( Juventus)?
Tottenham underachieves? :???: :???: :???: That is news to me. To most Spurs fans we have been over achieving for the past few years - 3rd, 2nd, 3rd with the kind of wages we pay and our financial structure not to mention squad depth.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

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Damunk wrote:I think the article hints at but understates an obvious fact: poverty.

I'm not too familiar with the plight of the African kid in France's deprived suburbs first hand, but if the level of poverty is such that football is seen as the only way out, then maybe it is the same recipe that was responsible for the conveyor belt of Brazilian talent coming through endlessly up until the 80s.

Pogba said it in the article,“there is only football. Whether at school or in the neighbourhood, everyone will play football. And that helps people to not stay in the quartier doing nothing, or doing stupid things.”

So the raw talent is in abundance and THEN the organised system kicks in - which is the difference between the African kid in France and his equivalent on the African continent.

In the UK, it might be the African kid has other choices and the level of poverty might be far less. Here, kids of the unemployed living in the highrise estates on welfare still have their Xboxes and Playstations and maybe football isn't such a release for them. And not to sound condescending to other Africans in France, but even low-income African families in the UK push their kids more towards academia. Sport is 'okay', "but read your book first". Whether its the legacy from their Anglophone African countries (Naija, Ghana) or the welfare system at play, or even a combination....who knows?

At the end of the day, its still an institutionalized racism at play out there in France, quite literally. :idea:

There is a book which has an interesting chapter on Football and why certain areas produce the most talent that you should read. It espouses the same logic you stated above ... I think it is Freakonomics or is it Soccernomics.
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Re: TOO MANY AFRICANS PLAYING FOR FRANCE

Post by Damunk »

Cristao II wrote:
Damunk wrote:I think the article hints at but understates an obvious fact: poverty.

I'm not too familiar with the plight of the African kid in France's deprived suburbs first hand, but if the level of poverty is such that football is seen as the only way out, then maybe it is the same recipe that was responsible for the conveyor belt of Brazilian talent coming through endlessly up until the 80s.

Pogba said it in the article,“there is only football. Whether at school or in the neighbourhood, everyone will play football. And that helps people to not stay in the quartier doing nothing, or doing stupid things.”

So the raw talent is in abundance and THEN the organised system kicks in - which is the difference between the African kid in France and his equivalent on the African continent.

In the UK, it might be the African kid has other choices and the level of poverty might be far less. Here, kids of the unemployed living in the highrise estates on welfare still have their Xboxes and Playstations and maybe football isn't such a release for them. And not to sound condescending to other Africans in France, but even low-income African families in the UK push their kids more towards academia. Sport is 'okay', "but read your book first". Whether its the legacy from their Anglophone African countries (Naija, Ghana) or the welfare system at play, or even a combination....who knows?

At the end of the day, its still an institutionalized racism at play out there in France, quite literally. :idea:

There is a book which has an interesting chapter on Football and why certain areas produce the most talent that you should read. It espouses the same logic you stated above ... I think it is Freakonomics or is it Soccernomics.
Thanks. Must be this:

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