Two or three decades ago, the press was still excited to announce the appearance of a player born in one country but playing for a different national team in Europe. Now it is a global situation, because society is completely different now.
Colorful social picture
In 2010, German President Christian Wulff awarded the German team the Silver Laurel Leaf Award. It is the highest honor in German sports, given only to those who have achieved great success.
Brothers Jerome Boateng (Germany, left ) and Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana) face each other at the 2010 World Cup
That year, Germany won third place in the World Cup. In the previous 14 World Cups, Germany had won three times and finished second four times. So what was so special about the third place finish in the 2010 World Cup that warranted a special medal? Both President Wulff and Chancellor Angela Merkel explained in the press at the time: "This German team is a mirror that accurately reflects a colorful, multicultural German society"!
In the list of the German team for the 2010 World Cup, half of the players are of Tunisian, Turkish, Nigerian, Polish, Brazilian, Ghanaian, Bosnian, and Spanish origin. Notably, Jerome Boateng (Germany) and his brother Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana) became the first pair of brothers in history to directly face each other on the World Cup field (in 2010).
A similar record should have been achieved earlier, and not by the Boateng brothers. Before the 2006 World Cup, the entire Dutch football world was waiting for the results of the naturalization application of young talent Salomon Kalou (from Ivory Coast). But the Dutch Minister of Immigration Rita Verdonk rejected all requests, declaring that Salomon Kalou must meet all requirements and have enough time to be granted a Dutch passport.
Ruud Gullit (left) and Frank Rijkaard are of Surinamese origin but helped the Dutch team fly high
At that time, Salomon's older brother Bonaventure Kalou played for Ivory Coast - a team in the same group as the Netherlands at the 2006 World Cup. Because Salomon Kalou did not have time to acquire Dutch citizenship, he was not allowed to attend the World Cup. He left Feyenoord, moved to Chelsea and 1 year later joined the Ivory Coast team.
The story of Salomon Kalou and the German players shows that sometimes it is a social and political issue rather than a football issue. Each place is different, even in the same place but at a different time, it is also different. All of them create a colorful picture.
Typical cases
The Netherlands (during the tenure of Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk) refused to give Salomon Kalou priority in naturalizing quickly to play for the national team, but in the 1980s and 1990s, Dutch football "took off" thanks to the simultaneous appearance of players born in or of this country's origin. Surinam is a former Dutch colony, declared independence in 1975.
Having reached the World Cup final twice in a row (1974, 1978), the Dutch team immediately "returned to its old position" after saying goodbye to the generation of Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, who were continuously absent from major tournaments. It was only when Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard appeared that the Dutch team, with its completely different professional traits from before, soared again. The Netherlands won EURO 1988 and since then has never returned to the same mediocre level as before. Gullit and Rijkaard were the first generation of players of Surinamese origin in the Dutch team. After them were Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Michael Reiziger, Winston Bogarde... From Gullit's time until now, the Dutch team has never lacked players of Surinamese blood.
The French team that won the 1998 World Cup had many players of non-French origin.
But it is not the Netherlands, but France that has the closest social ties with its former colonies. The 1998 World Cup winning team of France included all the best players who originated or were born in Senegal (Patrick Vieira), Ghana (Marcel Desailly), Algeria (Zinedine Zidane), Guadeloupe (Thierry Henry, Bernard Diomede, Lilian Thuram), New Caledonia (Christian Karembeu)... The World Cup they brought home in 1998 was considered a great victory for both France and Europe, because at that time the far-right ideology of Jean-Marie Le Pen ("give the French team back to the French") was on the rise, threatening the political and social stability of all of Europe.
On the other hand, Senegal participated in the World Cup for the first time (2002). Not only did they surprise by beating the defending champion France in the opening match, Senegal also reached the quarter-finals. The Senegal team at that time included 21/23 players playing in France, many of whom had never even returned to Senegal, except to play for the national team. They were "French players", rather than "Senegalese players". But of course, they were all legally qualified and naturally played for Senegal according to the law.
BECOME A GLOBAL STORY
Switzerland has never had a colony. But at EURO 2024, the Swiss team had 3 players of Albanian origin and players of Greek, Spanish, Chilean, Turkish, Tunisian, Dominican Republic, Cameroonian, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Senegalese, South Sudanese, and Congolese origin. This is the result of the migration trend in recent decades. For the same reason, but in the opposite direction, there were 18 players born abroad but still played for the Albanian team at EURO 2024.
In the 1990s, the press was still excited to write about Donato, just because he was a Brazilian player but played for Spain at EURO 1996, or why the Nigerian-born player Emmanuele Olisadebe appeared for Poland at the 2002 World Cup? Nowadays, almost no team turns its back on players from outside their football background. Even the Brazilian team has Andreas Pereira (born in Belgium, grew up and played football mainly in Europe, only his father is Brazilian), or Germany (at EURO 2024) has a player Waldemar Anton who was born in… Uzbekistan! (to be continued)
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ca-the-gioi-dang-dung-cau-thu-nhap-tich-185241001004328584.htm
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