Why is France the world's largest talent factory?
In the World Cup there are 98 footballers born in the French state, more than half of whom in Paris
BarcelonaThis year's is the World Cup of blurred borders and that of the diasporas. Almost 25% of the 1,248 players who compete in it defend the jersey of a national team different from their country of birth. The most paradigmatic case is Curaçao, which only has one player originally from the Caribbean island. The rest are from the Netherlands, the territory of which Curaçao depends on, which is not an independent state. In the World Cup there are up to 67 Dutch footballers, a figure that only France, which has 98, surpasses.
Besides the 23 called up with the blue –Olise (England), Thuram (Italy) and goalkeeper Samba (DR Congo) are the exception–, at the World Cup there are French-born players playing with Algeria, Haiti, DR Congo, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco, Cape Verde, Ghana, Spain, Egypt and Qatar. Algeria's starting goalkeeper is Luca Zidane, son of Zinédine Zidane, hero of the French national team that lifted its first World Cup in 1998. Even today, that triumph is remembered as one of multiculturalism of a national team that, since then, has always been represented by players with origins far from Europe; mainly in Africa and, in smaller numbers, also in its overseas territories in the Caribbean.
Football as a mirror of society
“Like the United States or Australia, France was built thanks to immigration. After the Second World War, many people arrived from the colonies to rebuild the country. Throughout the 20th century, many immigrants came, especially from Africa, to do the jobs that the French did not want to do: construction, renovation, cleaning jobs... They, their children, and their grandchildren make up French society and also its football team,” contextualizes Florent Torchut, journalist for France Football. Thus, the players of the bleus are the descendants of those immigrants: Mbappé has roots in Cameroon and Algeria, Kanté in Mali, Doué in Ivory Coast, Barcola in Togo, Olise in Nigeria, Kounde in Benin, Zaïre-Emery in Martinique, Dembélé in Mali, Senegal and Mauritania, Thuram in Guadeloupe or Samba in Congo. All of them make up the French team that is competing in the World Cup in America.
“What prevails in modern football is talent combined with physicality. And right now, France has the best footballers in the world. Their players have privileged genetics for football: they can repeat efforts, change direction, they have explosiveness, speed... Look at Mbappé, Kanté or Dembélé. Dembélé can generate a lot of strength, but strength with agility. They are brutal,” explains Fran Rubio, who worked at the PSG academy discovering and polishing talents like Zaïre-Emery.
For Rubio, currently assistant coach at Elche, multiculturalism is key to understanding French success: “Many footballers with different characteristics are mixed together. It is often said that those from black Africa are more physical than those from North Africa, but they are also athletes. And of course, besides the physical aspect, they have spectacular ball control because from a very young age they spend the day playing football in the suburbs of the big cities”. This is what is known as banlieues, the marginal neighborhoods on the outskirts of Lyon, Marseille, and especially Paris, which have become the main global talent factory. Players like Benzema, Ribéry, or Mbappé, who grew up in Bondy, one of the most conflict-ridden areas on the outskirts of the French capital, have emerged from there. There are 53 footballers at the World Cup born in Paris and its surroundings.
"Paris is the new Rio de Janeiro"
“Football is a social elevator, one of the few ways for the most disadvantaged to change their status,” says Torchut. For him, the great example is Dembélé: “His mother cleaned houses and he is now a Ballon d’Or winner. Many of his national teammates come from families with no resources, with fathers who worked in manual, very tough trades. For all of them, football has been a salvation”.
“France is the new Brazil and Paris the new Rio de Janeiro,” summarizes Rubio, who issues a warning: “They have the physique and the talent, but they still lack methodology. They are far from understanding and working the game like here, that's why in a Spain-France match everything is equalized. The day they get their act together, we can tremble. Imagine a footballer like Pogba with the intelligence of Pedri.” For now, they are favorites for the title and there is no country with more representation at the World Cup, where more than 70 French footballers do not represent their country of birth. With a squad of 26, there is no room for so much talent, and a good part of them have decided to play the World Cup under the flag of their parents' or grandparents' country.