Assistant professor Gijs van Campenhout shows a cartoon, made by the Jordanian-born artist Mahmoud Al Rifai, after France’s world title in 2018. Out of the white of the national tricolor, draped over France, a white hand reaches for a raft with African refugees with the world cup.
The French world title was partly due to migration from former French colonies. Migrant sons, from Pogba and Kanté to Mbappé, talents with multiple choices for a national team. Players choose with the heart or strategically; the top players for the best footballing country. The lesser talents can be international from their other home or mother country.
Why shouldn’t footballers be able to choose more often, the question is? Hakim Ziyech donned the jersey of Morocco, because he did not get along well with the Dutch national coaches. Now he has fallen into disfavor with the Moroccan national coach. Why couldn’t he still play for Orange? Van Campenhout: ‘Nota bene he was born in Dronten. How Dutch do you want it to be?’
Teams are more diverse than they used to be
Van Campenhout, who works as a lecturer at the University of Utrecht, will defend his thesis on Friday ‘a Team of national representatives‘, at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He examined all World Cup selections from 1930 on by origin; the country of birth and the country for which the international played, as well as the country of origin of parents and grandparents, are important for the choice that football players make. The assumption is that teams are more diverse than they used to be. That’s true, but it doesn’t make much difference. The diversity in national selections is primarily a reflection of national migration histories.
For example, in 1934 world champions Italy, four Argentinians were born. Since 1990, about ten percent have been born in a country other than that of their national team, due to migration and globalization, sometimes by chance. International Guus Til was born in Zambia, because his parents worked there.
Van Campenhout: ‘Morocco selects many players born in the Netherlands and other Western European countries. Sometimes no Moroccan-born player participates in the national team.’ Fifa is conservative: change countries at most once, taking into account restrictions. ‘In my view, that conservatism is not in line with the zeitgeist. I think it would be good to switch more often. A free choice does more justice to how the world is developing and to double feelings of nationality, the feeling of belonging to more than one country. It also prevents a rat race of countries that want to bind players at a young age.’
Soap with Mohamed Ihattaren
He mentions the soap with Mohamed Ihattaren as an example. Morocco tried to tempt him into a choice, while former national coach Ronald Koeman even handed him a shirt from Orange. Ihattaren said he wanted to play for the Netherlands, but ended up in a sporting crisis. What difference would it make if he changes his choice, and maybe again later? “Let go more.” In order to somewhat limit movements between countries, agreements should only apply for one specific tournament and the qualifying series. Van Campenhout contradicts the expectation that players will switch every once in a while, because they still have a bond with teammates, family or the public. But yes, critics argue, Qatar is building a national team for this year’s World Cup with only immigrants and children of immigrants. ‘The question is whether that is bad for a country that is purely an immigrant country. They don’t do much different there than France, Algeria or Morocco.’
A second branch of his research revolves around the popularity of migrant sons, taking Mesut Özil as an example. He was popular until the 2018 World Cup, where Germany failed. At about the same time he had himself photographed with President Erdogan of his ‘second’ homeland Turkey, after which he was heavily criticized. Özil said in an open letter, “If we win, I’ll be a German, if we lose, I’ll be an immigrant.”
The English misses of a penalty in the semi-final of the European Championship against Italy, Sancho, Rashford and Saka, were covered with racist dung. ‘The public is looking for someone to blame, often the one who doesn’t fit the stereotype. When things go less well, the fragility of national solidarity is visible. Football is a prism on society. It may therefore be better to place less value on nationality choices. Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum ran after the win in the Champions League with Liverpool with a flag that was half Dutch and half Surinamese. In doing so, they showed their ties to two countries in a beautiful way.’