Football and sport in general have been shifting, profoundly, on an opposite stream of the one politics are aligning.
For decades the national
sides were a reflex of the current national identity shouted out by the far
right parties, there were well defined borders and commerce and people didn’t
have the mobility that the EU brought. The European idea of a free market, an
open common space, which has been copycatted by other regions, in America, in
Africa, in Asia.
The migration patterns
changed and were reinforced, but especially the concept of open borders allowed
foreigners to finally settle in and feel truly welcome and part of the host
nation, giving their children the pride of belonging to both the ancestry and
the present.
Only in the 80’s and 90’s
were we able to see African descent represent England, Germany and several
other European nations. Foreign born players became more regular and this expanded
to the original regions. If, at first, the European took advantage of these
migration patterns from former colonies, later we started to verify those countries
retrieving the sons, daughters, grandchildren, trained in the European elite,
to represent the ancestors’ homes.
Youth has boundaries, however
that isn’t preventing young footballers from going abroad, still underage, and chase
the dream of becoming professional players.
If FIFA designed a new U17 world tournament with 48 sides and to be hosted annually and not every other year, as it was done until 2025, UEFA still remains in an outdated model, 8 nations’ final, when – as we already proposed and sent to their headquarters – a carved model with divisions and championship year long tournaments, potentially with a regular stage winner and a playoff for the title, giving multiple trophies, per division, per regular stage and for the final playoff.
The 2025 edition gave Albania
a debut as host. A year for them to remember, starting the Giro d’Italia and
hosting the U17 Men’s Final.
Albanian final roster has
basically foreign playing youngsters. The goalkeepers, Raffaele Huli and Daniel
Culi, were born and play in Italy, the first having played for both youth sides
of Italy and Albania and with Juventus, the latter playing for Ternana.
The right back, Darli Kurti,
was born in Tirana but plays in Italy, having changed from Genoa to Virtus
Entella last january, the left back, Gecaj, another Italian-born playing in
Juventus, Cekrezi wears Torino’s jersey, Nuhaj is with Greek giant Olympiacos
youth, Haradani is with German side Rot Weiss Essen, Hallidri is with Hellas
Verona and Sylejmani was already called up to Switzerland youth too and plays
with Servette.
Alen Vukaj is also Italian-born
and plays for Internazionale, Myrtaj was born in London and plays for
Tottenham, Sheji is the second Torino player in this final squad, Kulla was
born in Vllaznia’s town, Shkoder, but represents Italian Sassuolo while Redzepi
is playing for German Stuttgart.
Some of them are probably in
Albania for the first time and none is playing there, which says a lot.
Contrary to Albania, Germany
has a strong youth system and hosts many foreigners. Their squad is composed of
three goalies, Trippel from Borussia Monchengladbach, Reiners from Cologne and
Eastern German Mobius from Magdeburg.
Vali Fard, centre back from ‘Gladbach
also, has Iranian roots, Hawighorst left footed central defender hails from
Bayer Leverkusen, Balcanic descendant Pavlic is with Bayern Munich, Sierra
Leone’s child Turay is a left side player who represents Schalke 04 U19, Abraha
has Ethiopian roots and plays in his hometown Eintracht Frankfurt, whilst
Domnic is from Leverkusen but shares Ethiopian roots with Abraha, with Dortmund’s
U19 is Kaba, who has Guinean roots, Isbruch plays for Bochum, Göttlicher and
Karl for Bayern, Nguefack, who has Cameroon roots is another player already in
the U19 level, with Gladbach, Ghanaian child Mensah plays for Leverkusen, Mule
is in Stuttgart’s U19 and Nigeria’s descendant Wisdom Mike already shines in
Bayern’s U19, Turkish son Guner plays for Gladbach while German-American Staff
is with Frankfurt’s U19 alongside Oteng-Mensah, another Ghanaian son,
Transilvanian-born Creta plays for Hoffenheim, holding also Romanian
citizenship.
It was unthinkable in the 90’s – and anyone who went there or stayed there during those years – to imagine a German side so coloured and diverse but the 21st century brought that and everybody gained with it.
France was one of the first
sides to ‘normalize’ the use of African and Caribbean descent, alongside
Portugal, so this is regular for the national teams. In the French case, the
revolution was the French academies starting to develop youngsters who later go
on the represent nations like Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tchad,
Central African Republic, Tunisia, Niger, Comoros, Seychelles, Guinea, Ivory
Coast, Togo, Benin and other African national sides. However, if our plans and
developping ideas turn to reality, a new revolution will arrive soon.
Another interesting fact to
watch is the level each one is competing. Jourdren, for instance, one of France’s
goalie, is already playing for the second side of Racing Lens, the other
goalie, Bouyer was engaged by Milan AC to be part of their U23 side, Kyllian
Antonio has already debuted in Lens’ first team and is another player with
foreign ancestry, as is Legros who plays for Auxerre’s U19 and has DR Congo
roots, as well as Malonga and Mbemba, both from PSG U19, Batdebat is another
already seen in UEFA Youth League with PSG, Nantes’ left back Raiani has
Tunisian ancestry, Boly, also from PSG U19, has Ivory Coast roots, as well as N’Guéssan
from ASSE, Munongo is another DR Congo descendant, Coulibaly has Malian,
Mutondo has Congolese, Abdoulaye Camara was still born in Conakry, Guinea, Sanah
Camara also has Guinean roots, Eymard from ASSE U19 was born in Senegal and
Leccese of OM has Italian ancestry, Batola also has Congo descent, Himbert is
the only OL representative, Azizi plays for Toulouse U19 and is of Moroccan
descent.
The squad is made of Porter and
Dowman from Arsenal, Awesu, Nigerian descent goalie from West Ham, Braithwaite,
Man City U19 with Jamaica descent, Byfield, Williams-Barnett and Hardy of
Tottenham, Simmonds and Howell already plays with Brighton U21, left back
Benamar is of Algerian descent and plays for Crystal Palace, Chelsea’s Emenalo
was born in the USA and is the son of former Nigeria internacional Michael
Emenalo, Ridgeon is of Cingalese descent and plays for Fulham, Page is of
Leicester, Burrowes plays for Villa, Gorman, McAidoo and Heskey are other
Citizen talents with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, Ngumoha also has
Nigerian ancestry and is playing for Liverpool, Gray plays for Leeds U21 and
Gomes Rodríguez was born in Venezuela, already played for youth national sides
of Venezuela, Portugal and England and is with Olympique Lyon second team!
Kuchar of Banik Ostrava,
Kostelny of Zbrojovka Brno and Paar of Slavia Prague are the goalkeepers, the
latters already with the U19 sides.
Syrovatka and Vanek, Hradec
Kralove, Barcot and Kovar, Slavia Prague, Pech, Sparta Prague, and Capka, Sigma
Olomouc, make the back line, all already playing in the U19 sides of their
teams.
Skubala and Zajac, Banik
Ostrava, Palascak, Slavia Prague U19, Srb, Slavia Prague, Sochurek and Topic,
Sparta Prague U19, with also Cizek who moved last Summer from Slavia to German
Hoffenheim, and Janega who is with German Mainz 05, make the midfield.
Being a country made of two
nations, Belgium has a history of welcoming foreigners and its teams have had
foreigners for decades, in all FIFA disciplines, but also in basketball,
handball, volleyball, athletics.
Brughmans is one of the goalkeepers,
already playing for Genk second team, Henrion moved from Standard to Dutch
giant Ajax last Summer.
Jonkers is with PSV, Gielen
left Genk for Italian great Juventus in 2024, Wins plays for Club Brugge,
Darcon and De Kimpe for OH Leuven, Capilla Rivera brings back the centennial
connection between these territories and the Spanish Kingdom, and plays for
Gent, De Cat plays in Anderlecht second side, DR Congo descent Wamu Oyatambwe
plays for Genk second team as do De Wannemaecker.
Portugal was one of the first
European sides to bring African-born players to their national teams, an habit
which is maintained. Currently and alongside being an emmigrant country, the
nation became a host for immigrants not only from the former colonies but also
from Eastern European nations and Asia. The Eastern arrivals are already seen
in all the sports, having several competing in Judo, in handball, in
basketball, in volleyball and naturally in football.
The goalies of this squad are
Sporting CP’s Tverdohlebov, Algarve-born but with Russian ancestry, and
Sporting Braga’s Romário Cunha.
The back line is made up with
another Slavic descent, Martim Chelmik of FC Porto, Cape Verdean descent Mauro
Furtado of Benfica’s U19, Benfica’s José Neto and Ricardo Neto, Ovar-born but
of Arabic descent Dbouk who plays with Sporting Braga and Benfica’s Bissau-Guinean
descent Daniel Banjaqui.
Duarte Cunha of FC Porto is
one of the wingers, alonside Sporting Braga’s João Aragão, Benfica’s Anísio is
of Bissau-Guinean descent and FC Porto’s Mateus Mide is a Oporto-born of
Brazilian descent. Tomás Soares plays for Benfica’s U19 and hails from the
Portuguese furniture capital Paços de Ferreira.
As can be seen, although only
U17 many of these players already have senior experience, namely the French and
Belgian ones, showing the real purpose of having a senior second squad.
Curiously and despite having second sides and a senior ‘reserve’ league, Portugal doesn’t have senior minutes in the squad, which is, at the least, awkward. Portugal is also the squad with less clubs represented, only five, also a poor tradition in the Portuguese football pyramid.
Djylian N'Guéssan and Matondo have already played in Ligue 1, which make them naturally prospects for scout and better suits to shine, Lennart Karl from Germany is a forward to keep eye on, Steffanoni is a midfielder who will soon shine at Atalanta's first side, Ryan McAidoo is mandatory and Czech Cizek should also be well observed, as should Portuguese's Mide, Campaniello of Italy and French Boly can also make the list of players to watch even more closely, but always expect surprises, it's what youth football is made of!
