dot   Home     World     Europe     France  
Flag France

France

France’s Colonial Legacy

Race and national origin of the France team members are always a hot topic, because it all comes down to what makes a person “French” and who should be allowed to play for a national team. (Some people get quite snitty about this, but they’re mostly just jealous.)

I found an interesting summary on the blog “Culture of Soccer” last night. It shows the national origins of many of the France team players. I had been thinking about writing up something similar, but it’s always nice when somebody else does your research for you.

One interesting fact: “France was the example most cited in FIFA’s decision to allow players who had only played for the youth teams of one country to turn out for a second country’s full national team. Immediately, teams such as Senegal, Mali, and Ivory Coast saw their ranks swelled by former French youth national team players returning to play for their homelands.”

Another thing I found interesting was that the site doesn’t differentiate between players who were born outside of France and players who were actually born in France to parents who were born elsewhere. To me, as an American, place of birth makes a huge difference, since anybody born here is considered American regardless of where their parents are from. That’s less the case in France.

Here’s the national origin summary from the site. Anything in parentheses is my addition.

Algeria
Zinedine Zidane (born in France)
[also Karim Benzema (born in France)]

Martinique
Eric Abidal (born in France)
Thierry Henry (born in France)
Sylvain Wiltord (born in France)
Louis Saha (born in France)
Nicolas Anelka (born in France)

French Guyana
Mikael Silvestre (born in France)
Florent Malouda

Guadalupe
Lillian Thuram
William Gallas (born in France)

Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire)
Claude Makelele

Senegal
Patrick Vieira
Patrice Evra

Born at Sea (Parents from Angola and Congo)
Rio Antonio Mavuba

Seems like it would almost be easier to write up a list of who DOESN’T have parents born outside the country, eh?

Subscribe

 

rss icon France World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Print

Share

Comments are closed

 
 
 

MORE EUROPE BLOGS

france
France World Cup Blog
810 articles | 10,726 comments
 
croatia
Croatia World Cup Blog
197 articles | 1,839 comments
 
czechrepublic
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 articles | 320 comments
 
england
England Football World Cup Team Blog
845 articles | 2,987 comments
 
germany
Germany World Cup Blog Blog
521 articles | 3,198 comments
 
italy
Italy World Cup Blog
598 articles | 22,832 comments
 
netherlands
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,066 articles | 29,464 comments
 
poland
Poland World Cup Blog
366 articles | 4,559 comments
 
portugal
Portugal World Cup Blog
458 articles | 7,100 comments
 
serbia
Serbia World Cup Team Blog
170 articles | 877 comments
 
spain
Spain World Cup Blog
236 articles | 1,947 comments
 
sweden
Sweden World Cup Blog
151 articles | 318 comments
 
switzerland
Switzerland World Cup Blog
217 articles | 327 comments
 
ukraine
Ukraine World Cup Team Blog
120 articles | 807 comments
 
greece
Greece World Cup Blog
147 articles | 79 comments
 
russia
Russia World Cup Blog
81 articles | 159 comments
 
scotland
Scotland World Cup Team Blog
102 articles | 110 comments
 
ireland
Ireland World Cup Team Blog
57 articles | 124 comments
 
norway
Norway World Cup Team Blog
12 articles | 8 comments
 
turkey
Turkey World Cup Blog
40 articles | 296 comments
 
romania
Romania World Cup Blog
78 articles | 281 comments
 
austria
Austria World Cup Blog
111 articles | 117 comments
 
denmark
Denmark World Cup Team Blog
8 articles | 27 comments
 
albania
Albania World Cup Team Blog
4 articles | 8 comments
 
belgium
Belgium World Cup Team Blog
49 articles | 59 comments
 
wales
Wales World Cup Team Blog
61 articles | 17 comments
 
bosnia
Bosnia World Cup Team Blog
31 articles | 89 comments
 
israel
Israel World Cup Team Blog
22 articles | 18 comments
 
slovakia
Slovakia World Cup Team Blog
2 articles | 2 comments
 
slovenia
Slovenia World Cup Team Blog
1 articles | 1 comments
 

CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES

 
 
Closer