What country to represent

What are we? Where are we from? From where we are born? Where we grew up? The fact is that most people tend to put you in boxes according to how they see you, most often a “nationality box” that is fixed and closed. 

But they could not be more wrong; there is no box; identity is open, flexible, and in constant movement. 

The footballing world provides an interesting insight into this apparent nationality paradox. According to FIFA rules, footballers are only allowed to play for one national team at Senior level. This means that while they may have played for a different youth national team, they eventually must select the side they will play for the rest of their footballing lives. 

Recently Diego Luna, a young player of Mexican background said he preferred to play for the USA rather than Mexico: “Nací y me crie aquí, este país me dio lo que tengo ahora. Creo que es justo jugar para el país que me hizo quien soy” (“I was born and raised here [USA], this country gave me what I have today. I think it is fair to play for the country that made me who I am”). Some people may call him a “Mexican playing for the USA”, but this ignores the diversity of backgrounds that is the reality in this world with more people of diverse backgrounds than not. 

Alfredo Di Stefano is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time and may be the reason that the eligibility rules were changed. During his career Alfredo di Stefano played for three different national teams: Argentina, Colombia and Spain. The issue never became major as he made his career in Real Madrid, but his changes of teams would never have been possible today, and other players have had to choose their national teams. 

Owen Hargreaves was a one of the most important players of the English national team and Bayern Munich in the early 2000s. He was born in Canada to a Welsh-English couple, and could have been eligible for Canada and Wales as well. In fact, he played for Wales youth sides, but in the end chose England, playing the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, something that would not have been possible with Wales or Canada. Ben Breterton is another English player, born and raised, but with a Chilean mother. He played for England at youth level, representing them at U-17 and U-19 tournaments. But never having made his debut at Senior level he was called up by Chile, and made his debut in 2021, despite of the fact that he did not speak Spanish. He nevertheless became a popular addition to a team that took him to a Copa America, something that would surely have been impossible with England. 

The many migrations between Europe and Africa have meant that there are many players with mixed identities. France is often accused of playing with “non-French” players, but the truth is that this is much more nuanced, and players' choices of national team depend on a wide range of individual circumstances. Before Ngolo Kante became one of the world’s best footballers he had played a few years at lower level French sides Boulogne and Caen. Born in France to Malian parents he was approached by the Mali football federation, but said he preferred to wait for a possible call-up from France. In 2015 Kante changed to Leicester, becoming one of the best players in the world, and never looking back. He was called up for France and became one of the most important players in the World Champion side of 2018 with the country where he was born and grew up. 

Yacine Brahimi was also born in France and played consistently for all French youth national teams from the age of 15 to 20. Born to Algerian parents he was contacted by the Algerian football federation in 2010, but turned them down, expecting to be called up for France at Senior level. When this did not happen, Brahimi opted for Algeria, and in 2014 represented the North African side in the World Cup. The Moroccan star, Achraf Hakimi was born in Spain to Moroccan parents, and was spotted early on by the Real Madrid youth academy, who immediately took him in alongside other future Spanish stars. He was offered to play for Spain’s youth side, but he rejected it, and went on to play for Morocco youth teams, and was a key player in Morocco’s historical semifinal side at the World Cup in 2022. 

Germany is unlike France not often accused of using “foreigners” in their national team, but have a history of players with diverse backgrounds as well. Miroslav Klose, the most scoring player in World Cup history, was born in Poland (his mother represented the Polish national handball team). Klose arrived in Germany as a child speaking no German, and was raised in the country he came to represent, although he later stated that he would have liked to play for Poland. The large Turkish diaspora in Germany have provided players both for Germany and for Turkey. A notable case is the great Mesut Ozil, born and raised in Germany, he has stated that it was a dilemma for him who to choose to play for. He ended having a successful career with Germany, winning the World Cup in 2014, but has also faced a lot of controversy following his involvement in Turkish politics, showing the complex diversity of his background. 

Another interesting case is that of Kevin Prince-Boteng who was born and raised in Germany to a Ghanaian father and a German mother. Alongside his brother Jerome, he played on German youth national teams, but after some disciplinary problems he chose to play for Ghana at Senior level, stating that he felt more Ghanaian, despite the fact that he had never lived in the West African country. In the meantime Jerome became an important player in the German national team, and in the 2010 World Cup the two brothers faced one another when Ghana and Germany clashed in the first round. 

These are just some example, but there are so many more: Thomas Christiansen (Denmark-Spain), Valon Berisha (Sweden-Kosovo), Gonzalo Higuain (France-Argentina), Timothy Weah (Liberia-USA), Diego Costa (Brazil-Spain), Jorginho (Brazil-Italy), etc. 

It is simplistic to assert that a certain national team has “foreigners” on their side; the fact that players are “forced” to choose a national team does not take away the fluidity of multiple identities that is a reality in a world of fluent borders and identities.

#MeTwo

The situation of Mezut Ozil has pissed me off so much that whatever little support or any big respect I had for German football hangs on a thin thread. I can totally understand that he has left the national team of ungrateful and hateful fans, who indeed treated him well when things go well, and badly when things go badly, as they did for Germany in the last World Cup.
Now this is a symptom of the much wider problems of nationalism, where too many people think that you cannot love or identify with more than one nation. Nations are mental constructs! They only exist in people's mind. And from that mind comes a lot of symbols in the form of paper, cloth, songs, stories, etc., that basically just exist to constantly reconfirm this mental construct.
Football also contributes to recreate this mental construct. That is basically the only reason for having the World Cup at a time when football is a global sport: I can sit in Liberia watching an English League match where a Frenchman of Malian descent plays alongside a Spaniard of Catalonian heritage to score a goal against a Belgian (Waloon) goalkeeper for a club owned by a Russian. In this global mixture a player or a fan may love multiple teams, may love multiple countries and may count his heritage from many parts of the world.
I admire Mr. Ozil because he, like so many of us in the world with mixed heritage says what we all know: that you can belong and feel proud of having a multiple cross-national background, so incredibly rich in its diversity, and so incredibly open to the wonders of this world that I often pity the people whose narrow minds limits them to a particular mental construct.
Quoting the fantastic writer Mr. Amin Maalouf:
"I am at the edge of two worlds, of two or three languages, of many cultural traditions. It is precisely that which defines me… I do not have many identities, I have one, made up of all these elements…. "but deep inside, what do you feel you are?": this reoccurring question made me smile for a long time. Today, I do not smile at it anymore. It seems to me that it shows a dangerous way of seeing the world that is very wide-spread nowadays. It supposes that there is, within each of us, only one belonging which matters, an essence which is determined once and for all at birth and which will never change; as if the rest – your journey through life as a free person, your convictions, your preferences, your sensibilities, your affinities, in short your life – counted for nothing. And we push others to strengthen their identity as we so often do nowadays, it is as if we were telling them to find, deep within themselves, this theoretical original belonging, which is most often ethnic, national, religious or racial, and throw it in the face of others."

Nationalities in football

It is kind of annoying to be a fan of a sport where old-fashioned nationalism thrives: football.

I was just reading an article about Arsenal's Spanish goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who after many years in England, is planning to become an English citizen. Since he has never played for his native Spain, this would make him eligible for the English national team (who does have a goalkeeping problem).
Why does this seem to annoy so many people? Examples are so numerous, historically and in football, about the fluidity of nationality, as to make the arguments about football nationality irrelevant, particularly in Spain, who continues to sport non-Spanish born players on its national team, Senna, as well as having done it before: Di Stefano, Puzkas, Donato...
France has a long list of players born in Africa, and Germany has quite a number of players of mixed nationality. Turkey has players who were born, raised and live abroad, while even the Italian defending champions had one on their team, besides having Christian Vieri, whose brother in fact plays for Australia.
Portugal has many Brazilians, besides their big star Deco, as well as having had their greatest star, Eusebio.

In none of these teams, does anybody doubt the nationality of any of the players, and none of the players make any of these teams less "national". In fact, I would even argue that it makes them more so, as it opens up for the changing and evolving cultural structures in national societies, where it is constantly re-defined what it means to be "from somewhere". Football-players like these are important contributors to this.
For many people, and in some countries, nationality is something about the blood or whatever undefineable. I saw a thing on Danish TV3 not long ago about how Zlatan Ibrahimovic would never have had a chance to make it to the national team in Denmark, while in neighboring Sweden he did have the support to become a great Danish star. And this tells you more about Danish society than it does about the football players or the national football team!

Let us forget this, and enjoy football as it is: in truth, the best football is seen in the multi-national club teams of the Champions League, rather than in second-rate national teams that assemble but twice a year. Still, "normal" people (that is, not football-fans) tend to like the latter because it appeals to the lowest common denominators of national tribalism.