This is Portugal playing Morocco at the 2018 World Cup. Portugal was the heavy favorite and won the game 1-0. The result wasn’t all that interesting, but this photo is.
This Portugal player wasn’t born in Portugal and these two Morocco players weren’t born in Morocco. See, soccer’s regulating body, FIFA, allows athletes to play for any nation they have a clear connection to, including the country a player’s parents or grandparents are from. In this year’s World Cup, 82 players are playing for countries that they weren’t born in.
So… where are they coming from? If we plot it on a map, one country stands out. France is where the largest number of all World Cup players were born.
Brazil has the next highest total but it’s not even close. France has had the most native players and coaches in the last 4 World Cups and their dominance has been on the rise. So, what’s so special about France?
At the end of World War II, much of France was destroyed. The government began recruiting laborers, from southern and eastern Europe as well as colonies in northern Africa, to rebuild the country during the late 1940s and 1950s. During that time France brought in more immigrants than any other European country.
And in the 1960s and early 70s France’s economy grew rapidly and a labor shortage led to another wave of immigrants - with even more arrivals from French colonies throughout Africa and the Caribbean. Many of them settled in major housing developments just outside of the major cities. At the same time, France was also in a sports crisis.
Especially the national football team. Between 1960 and 1974, France failed to qualify for three world cups and three European championships. The French Football Federation decided the way to get better was to create a national structure for developing talent, so it established one of Europe's first football academy systems.
In 1972, a national training center was opened in Vichy, and four years later, the Federation worked with top French football clubs to set up a wider network of academies to recruit and train local youth. In 1988, the national training center moved to a forested suburb south of Paris called Clairefontaine and by the early 1990s, this French soccer system was one of the best in the world - developing talented players from all over France. And the system delivered results.
In 1998, the French national team, called Les Bleues, won the World Cup. A moment that was celebrated throughout the country. And it seemed to be a breakthrough for French multiculturalism as well, since several players were either immigrants themselves or children of immigrants who came to France in the 20th century.
The team was called the “Black, Blanc, Beur”, meaning “black, white, arab” - a spin on the three colors of the French flag But not everyone supported diversity, particularly nationalist politicians like Jean-Marie Le Pen. Despite racist criticism, players from immigrant families have continued to make up more and more of France’s best talent. Many come from one place in particular.
38% of immigrants to France settle in Greater Paris. Most end up in these areas called banlieues. The French word literally means “suburb”; but it can also imply immigrant-dominated ghettos.
Over the years, these areas have frequently seen riots. They have high levels of unemployment, crime, and poverty and are in a crisis. Yet the banlieues continue to produce some of the most talented soccer players.
That’s because this is where France’s immigration history meets its soccer system, and it’s the reason why the city is the world’s number one talent pool for soccer. Since 2002, the number of Parisian-born players at the World Cup has continued to rise. Out of all French players at the 2018 World Cup (50), 16 were born or raised in Greater Paris.
The French national team has eight from banlieues, all children of immigrants. That includes Kylian Mbappe, France’s 19 year-old super star who was born to an Algerian mother and Cameroonian father in the Parisian suburb of Bondy and was trained through the French system at Clairefontaine. But Parisian players don’t just play for France.
Over the years, FIFA’s eligibility rules have allowed them to play for countries like the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Algeria, Portugal, Cameroon, and Togo. 4 players on this year’s Senegal team are from the Greater Paris area as well as this player on Tunisia. And remember this photo?
Both of these players were born in Paris. That’s what’s special about French soccer - the combination of an established academy system and its unique immigration history is producing incredible talent - for France and the rest of the world.
