When France and Senegal kick off for their first World Cup match in New Jersey on Tuesday evening, there will be eleven footballers from both national teams on the field. Yet there are probably more footballers born in France than in Senegal. Ten of the players in the Senegal selection had their cradle in France.
You could say: this makes it the most ‘French’ match of the World Cup, which is a ‘French’ tournament anyway. No fewer than 97 players selected for this tournament were born in the country – only 22 of which play for the country Les Blues. Half (13) of the Algerian team were born in France, as were eleven of the 26 players from DR Congo and Haiti. French-born players also play for Senegal (10), Ivory Coast (9), Tunisia (6), Morocco (6), Ghana (3), Cape Verde (3), Qatar (1), Egypt (1) and even rival Spain (1). For example, Désiré Doue plays for France, but his brother Guéla plays for Ivory Coast. Eleven of the 26 French players have a background in colonized African countries – all were born in France.
But the match is above all the most striking example of what you can call the migrant’s World Cup. It reflects modern history, of countries colonized and liberated, of migrant communities flourishing in distant lands, of forced displacement due to wars and poverty and chance. The modern World Cup cannot be understood without understanding modern history.
Multicultural societies are represented by one team at world championships. It is precisely under the shared flag of a nation that layered identities are formed: teams in which players have all kinds of backgrounds, but ultimately are mainly Dutch, French or Algerian – or both.
In a sense it has never been different. Already at the first World Cup in 1930, approximately one in eight footballers had a migration background. Luis Monti lost the final that year as an Argentinian. Four years later he won the tournament as a player from Italy, the country of his ancestors.
The Italian national team during the 1934 World Cup, Luis Monti standing second from the left
Getty Images
Ferenc Puskas (Hungary) and Werner Liebrich (West Germany) during the 1954 World Cup final
ullstein image via Getty Images
Portugal’s Eusebio (l) talking to Soviet Union goalkeeper Lev Yashin (r) before the 1966 World Cup match
PA Images via Getty Images
Miroslav Klose, born in Opole, Poland, scores for Germany during the quarter-final against Argentina at the 2010 World Cup
ANP/EPA
Budapest-born top striker Ferenc Puskas led Hungary to the final in 1954 and later played international matches for Spain. Eusebio, Portugal’s top scorer in 1966, was born in the former colony of Mozambique; the German Miroslav Klose, all-time top scorer at the world championships, in Poland.
In the decades after Montis’ double victory, post-colonial migration flows started that have since steadily filtered through to the football teams, with this year being the pinnacle: such a ‘migrant tournament’ as this edition has never happened before. NRC examined all almost thirteen thousand football players who were ever called up for a World Cup. We looked at where those football players were born, their nationalities, their possible migration background and the countries they play for. For historical data, use was largely made of the data that researcher Gijs van Campenhout (Utrecht University) collected about all football players who were selected for the first World Cup in 1930 until the penultimate World Cup in 2022.
This research shows that after France (97), there is no other country where as many World Cup football players are born as the Netherlands. Of the 26 players in the Dutch team, only Guus Til was born elsewhere (in Zambia); Of the Curaçao selection, only Tahith Chong was not born in the Netherlands (but in Curaçao). Six Cape Verde internationals come from Rotterdam. The Dutch also play in the selections of Morocco (3), Turkey (3), United States (1), Algeria (1), Tunisia (1), Ghana (1) and New Zealand (1). This means that more Dutch-born footballers do not play for the Dutch national team (42) than do (25).
At the same time, never before has such a large percentage of Orange internationals had a migration background: 53 percent. At the World Cup in 1990 it was forty percent. At the four World Cups in which the Netherlands previously participated (1934, 1938, 1974 and 1978), no one in the Dutch selection had a migration background.
The Dutch team has become more multicultural in recent decades, just as Western societies have become. Stars of the German team that became world champions in 2014 had not only German, but also Turkish, Tunisian and Polish roots. France, which became world champion in 1998, represented the modern, multicultural country and proudly bore the nickname “Black, Blanc, Beur”.
The French team before the final match against Brazil at the 1998 World Cup
AFP
The dark side: racism. “Not a real French team,” said far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen about the team that became world champions. “Black Petes” or “go back to your own country”, many people responded in 2014 under a photo of Dutch internationals with a Surinamese background.
Migration is one cause for the growth in the number of ‘foreign born’ footballers this century. This coincided with another development, says researcher Gijs van Campenhout. “Football associations have become smarter. And athletes have started looking more for the possibilities.” Football associations have started looking more actively for footballers in the diaspora, while footballers became more aware of the opportunities their bloodlines offered for an international career.
Footballers Tahar and Mustapha Hadji (right) in the match Morocco against Norway during the World Cup in 1998
Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
At the 1998 World Cup, Schiedam-born striker Ali El Khattabi was one of only two Moroccans born in Europe. Mustapha Hadji was the star in that team. He was born in Morocco but grew up in France. He was discovered by chance by the national coach, who read about him in a French football magazine. In 2026, three quarters of Moroccan footballers were born outside the country itself, which is the result of policy.
For a long time, the Europeans who chose Morocco were mainly football players who were not eligible for the national team of their native country. But since 2014, the Moroccan Football Association has been actively scouting and recruiting European footballers whose (grand)parents were born in Morocco. It is no longer about players who are not good enough for the selection of their native country; a player like Hakim Ziyech consciously chose Morocco, even though he had already been called up for the Dutch team. Even at youth level, the Moroccan association is now signing footballers. For example, Feyenoord talent Ayoub Ouarghi (18) recently opted for Morocco.
One reason that football players themselves give for that choice is increasing discrimination. Dries Boussata, once the first Dutch international with a Moroccan background, indicated in a TV interview that he would probably have chosen Morocco now. Who wins is Dutch or French, who loses is Moroccan or Algerian.
More football associations have started actively recruiting in the diaspora. A well-known example this year is Curaçao. In recent years, the team has recruited Dutch professionals who have their roots on their Caribbean island. Only one player from the World Cup selection was born in Curaçao; Tahith Chong. He moved to the Netherlands as a child because his father thought that with his football talent he would have more opportunities there. He now plays for Sheffield United through the youth of Feyenoord and Manchester United.
Tahith Chong (left) and Kevin Felida during a training of the Curaçao national team
ANP
The higher percentage of immigrants and foreign-born players in this tournament is partly due to two developments that Curaçao also benefits from. This year’s World Cup has been expanded to 48 countries, sixteen more than before. As a result, smaller football countries had a greater chance of qualifying. In addition to Curaçao, debutants Congo and Haiti also consist largely of players who were born in the diaspora.
The empire strikes backresearcher Gijs van Campenhout responds to the research. “You see colonial roots in many selections. Due to globalization you also see that people with specific talents, in this case footballers, can find work worldwide. Foreign-born footballers are an opportunity, especially for smaller countries. The best possible team at a major international tournament is important for many countries to strengthen ties within a country and its image to the outside world.”