France’s player call ups have changed over the years, which currently involves more blacks than whites.
During France’s matches at the FIFA World Cup 2022 this year, a lot of conversations had been generated by netizens about the player selection France made towards their games. Revealing that, about 70℅ of France’s top National team players were of African descent was a whole topic to talk about.
In the eyes of many African football fans, France are not just a team full of players with African heritage. They are something akin to a Pan-African football team.
In a bid to expatiate on this, however, certain revelations have been made on the reasons why these players choose to play for other teams aside Africa. Honestly speaking, it’s not entirely the faults of these players because, facts indicate that corruption is rampant with national team call-ups in Africa, and merits are not considered.
There were at least 15 players with African roots the in the France squad, and their lineages stem from all over Africa:
Samuel Umtiti was born in Cameroon, Steve Mandanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Paul Pogba’s parents are from Guinea, N’Golo Kante’s from Mali.
Blaise Matuidi’s parents are from Angola and came to France via DR Congo.
Kylian Mbappe has an Algerian mother and a Cameroonian father.
Presnel Kimpembe and Steven Nzonzi’s fathers are Congolese. Corentin Tolisso’s dad is from Togo.
The list goes on:
Koundé – Benin
Tchouameni – Cameroon
Guendouzi – Morocco
Ben Yedder – Tunisia
Nkunku – DR Congo
Saliba – Cameroon
Diaby – Mali
Pogba – Guinea-Conakry
Matuidi – Angola
Benzema – Algeria
Questions were asked by netizens about why all these players chose to play for the European team, rather than for Africa. Well, we all had same thoughts in our minds until one of the players came out to speak about this issue.
Guess who? Mbappe. Below was Mbappe’s reply to why he chose to play for the French, rather than for Cameroon:
“I am not Cameroonian. I am French. At the beginning of my career, when I was still in the shadows, my father called on Fecafoot to make me play for the Cameroon National team but a large sum of money was requested from us to be admitted to the team. My father being disgusted, therefore turned to France. And France gave me a chance to show what I was worth”.
“Today, Cameroon is calling on me, they are giving me a nationality that is not mine. I am French and I will remain French”, said the man whom specialists consider to be one of the greatest players of the next ten years.
Facts indicate that corruption is rampant with national team call-ups in Africa, where merits are not considered.
Who knows? What happened to Mbappe could have happened to all the other players which make up the French National team.
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