CHENNAI: A sweeping Switzerland move, one of the very few clear-cut chances they had in the entire match, was swept home by Breel Embolo in the second-half. Even as his teammates ran towards him to celebrate, Embolo himself wasn’t sure whether this occasion was worthy of a celebration. His attempts to mimic his colleagues was half-hearted. Soon enough, his emotion turned. He raised both his hands as if he was saying a sorry. Embolo, of course, had his own reasons for the non-celebration. He was born in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital.
The forward moved to Switzerland early on before joining FC Basel’s academy. He had already played for Switzerland’s youth teams before, in 2014, declaring that he would play for his adopted country. “This is not a decision against Cameroon, but one for Switzerland,” he told Basel’s website in 2014. “I hope people will respect and accept my decision.”
The complex issue of nationality, migratory patterns and citizenship has frequently spilled into the universe of international football but the ongoing World Cup has seen a spike. 137 players in Qatar or 16 per cent of all players at the World Cup will be playing for a country they were not born in. Just to drive home this point, the person who provided the assist for Embolo’s goal Xherdan Shaqiri was born in Gjilan, Yugoslavia (now Kosovo).
Here’s two numbers that paint a picture. In 2014 and 2018, there were 85 and 84 players who represented a nation that they were not in born in. Four years later, this number has increased to 137. Even considering a marginal increase in roster sizes teams have been allowed to name 26 man-squads rather than the 23 in 2014 and 2018 that’s a significant jump. One of Thursday’s other games further illustrates this point. Seven of the 22 starters were born outside the territories controlled by the respective countries, with a further eight named on the substitutes bench.
There are several reasons why international football doesn’t mimic the global migration pattern. In the beginning of 2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) pegged the number of migrants at 272 mn (3.5 per cent of the global population). Firstly, there is an inequality in talent hotbeds. Brazil was once considered as the global talent factory when it came to producing young footballers at an industrial level. In the 21st century, France has taken over that moniker. The country, ESPN noted in an article in 2019, “... 52 French-born players present in Russia for the tournament, making it the fourth successive World Cup at which France has supplied more players than any other competing nation. More than a quarter of the players whose teams reached the semifinals had come through French youth academies, while a study published by the CIES Football Observatory in May this year revealed that France is the second-biggest global exporter of professional footballers behind Brazil.”
No surprises to see that it has retained that place in Qatar as well. 37 players born in France play for other countries in Qatar. You then come to the question of convenience or desire to play international football or to go back to their roots. While the world governing body for football, FIFA, have tightened regulations (it’s a far cry from the time when Luis Monti played two World Cup finals for two different countries in the 1930s), it gives players the chance to move freely.
An immediate example of this was in the identity of one of the substitutes on the Ghana bench. Exciting wing-back Tariq Lamptey, who was born in England. Lamptey burst into the limelight as a youth product at Chelsea before he moved to Brighton to seek first-team opportunities. At Brighton, he put in a series of eye-catching performances. While England were aware of his potential — he has played in a number of developmental sides — Ghana, aware of his heritage, approached him.
Considering there was no guarantee of Lamptey nailing down a starting place in the senior squad — co-incidentally, there is a joke that goes that England can name a side with 11 right-backs because of the talent in that specific position — the 22-year-old officially switched in September, two months before the World Cup.
Ghana's starting forward, Inaki Williams, is another. He was born in Spain but Williams (his brother, Nico, is a part of Spain's 26-man contingent) announced his desire to play for Ghana (his parents were born there before leaving the country). In an emotional interview, he said this was for his parents. On Friday, Qatar plays Senegal where 22 of the 52 players were born elsewhere.