Who is really playing in the World Cup?

www.americanthinker.com

It is interesting to witness underdog African nations being competitive at the World Cup. Players with an African heritage often exhibit a freewheeling style with unpredictable skills, and the world is noticing. Nowadays, they not only represent their ancestral roots, but adopted countries.

I assume they’re adopted. I just watched the highlights of a Switzerland match (against Algeria), and several of their starters (and best players) are black. Switzerland, mind you! The number of players of African descent in the Swiss soccer squad is disproportionately greater than their representation in the population, though Black culture in the country is supposedly on the rise.

To a slightly lesser extent, national identities are flexible within the French and Belgian squads -- some of their best players have roots that trace to the “Mother Continent.” Interestingly, the son of famed “French” player Zinedine Zidane is a goalkeeper for Algeria’s national team. He’d probably play for France if they weren’t so stacked with talent. If “ZZ” himself had chosen to play for Algeria, one wonders if “French” soccer would have been so successful.

There is a broader point: while globalization is being “transformed,” in soccer it continues to thrive. Sometimes it’s even hard to know who to cheer for -- or against -- when one’s birth country is not in action. For example, the Netherlands recently beat the Netherlands. Or was that Belgium or Spain beating them?

Sound weird? Well, Morocco knocked out the Netherlands from the World Cup, and none of their starting players were actually born in Morocco -- instead, many have deep ties to the Netherlands.

In fact, about 23.3 % of players at the World Cup were born outside the country they represent (As an aside: birthright citizenship is uncommon throughout the world). When Germany beat minnows Curaçao 7-1 (a Dutch territory), they really beat a bunch of Netherlanders -- almost all of the Curacao players were born there.

A similar jersey-swapping scenario happens with wishy-washy Olympic athletes -- choosing the country they’ll represent, though to a lesser extent.

I appreciate the cosmopolitan nature of the top domestic soccer leagues, where foreign players inject all kinds of flair and trickery. Still, when it comes to international tournaments, it’d be nice to know who one is really wishing schadenfreude upon. The good ol’ days when one could despise a particular national team because of their… you know… nationality.

Image: White House