Nationality and Sport

The Identity of French World Cup Team
Aba boy has written an excellent piece on why black people and immigrants would identify with the success of the French Team. The French team that started the match against Spain on Monday had seven black players in its starting line up. Of the eleven players who started, nine had parents who were not born on the French Mainland and were either first or second generation immigrants. Thierry Henry & William Gallas have parents that come from Guadeloupe while Lilian Thuram was actually born in Guadeloupe, Patrick Vieira's roots are Senegalese and is a naturalized Frenchman, Sidney Govou's parents come from the Republic of Benin, Florent Malouda was born in French Guiana, and Claude Makelele was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The French Manager has also stoked controversy by claiming that his team were subject to racist chants by Spanish fans before the match. This in addition to the awful comments the Spanish Manager Luis Aragones made in relation to Thierry Henry. Nkem at African Shirts said we are all Ghanian now, and yes early on Monday evening I was Ghanian, but from 8pm I became French.

On representing "your country" in Sporting Tournaments
Many Africans move to Europe and North America in search of a better life and many settle down in these places to raise families. The children of these immigrants then grow up as indigenes and for those who turn to sport may then end up representing these countries in whatever field they specialise in. An example of this is Freddy Adu, the teenage football prodigy who moved to the USA from Ghana at the age of eight. Barring injury or a totally unexpected dip in form, this teenager will probably be the Star of the 2010 world cup in South Africa while he represents the USA. (imagine my suprise in typing 'Adu' into google and the first entry is relating to Freddy? What happened to the global phenomena that is Sade?).

Other sportspeople face more complex decisions when choosing which country to represent as they may have moved to another country as an adult professional in search active support and development. Emmanuel Olisadebe represented Poland at the 2002 World Cup scoring for his adopted country while Nigeria failed to qualify for the second round of the tournament as we stuggled to cope with the aging talent of Nwankwo Kanu.

Francis Obikwelu born in Nigeria and after representing his country of birth in a couple of World Championships made a decision to run for Portugal because of neglect by Nigerian sports officials when he was injured while representing Nigeria. In the 2004 Olympic Games he won the silver medal in the 100m final for Portugal. When I watched that final I experienced complex emotions, pride for his acheivement, shame that he wasn't able to represent Nigeria and embarassment that I was 'claiming' a success that now belonged to Portugal.

In 2003 the BBC asked Does the Flag Matter? as many African athletes were representing and winning medals for other countries during the World Championships; Wilson Kipketer (800m) representing Denmark, Nigeria's Gloria Alozie (100m hurdles) for Spain and Sierra Leone lost silver medal winning heptathlete Eunice Barber to France.

Salomon Kalou was born in Cote d'Ivoire and moved to the Netherlands at age 17. Earlier this year he sought accelerated naturalization as a Dutch Citizen in order to play for Holland at this World Cup. This bid failed and he never got to play. Strangely enough the Netherlands and Côte d'Ivoire were allocated to the same group in the first round. If Kalou had become a Dutch citizen and was selected for the Netherlands, he could have played against his native country. Meanwhile in a case where reality is almost stranger than fiction his older brother, Bonaventure featured for Côte d'Ivoire in Germany. If the Côte d'Ivoire had the striking talent of the young Salomon perhaps they would have been the second African team in the Second round.

What is the future of African Sport when its best and most talented stars now choose to represent European and North American Countries? Should they retain a sense of patriotism despite the odds and continue to wave the flag of their countries of origin?