Liverpool Vs. Inter Milan – Soccer Sans Frontieres?
Italian giants, Inter Milan, yesterday fielded a squad with only one Italian, Marco Materazzi, alongside seven South Americans! This is arguably one of their strongest possible squads for a game as important as that UEFA Champions League (CL) match. This revives the debate about the handling of foreign players in domestic leagues. Granted, not many clubs follow the route of Barcelona, who must somehow feature a native Catalan in their squad. This is also an active policy the club pursues in their famed football academy. This notwithstanding, as of November last year, Inter had 23 foreigners to five full-blooded Italians. The Spanish big two, Barcelona and Real Madrid, had 34 foreign players to 21 native ones between them. This year’s Africa Cup of Nations alone saw the participation of a staggering 143 of the 368 players (approx. 39%), who ply their trade in Europe! What does this mean in world football? It is hard to generalize the long-term effects of all this. Italy and Spain, both of whose leagues are ranked with the English Premier League (EPL), provide a case in point, with the Azurri having won two World Cups since 1982, and Spain, a perennial underachiever on the football map, despite boasting great talent in any of its lineups. In Africa, you have Egypt, a country boasting a vibrant local league, winning back-to-back Cup of Nations, while fielding virtually homegrown players only. There might be no simplistic explanation for such phenomena.
As the World football magazine demonstrated in its recent survey (‘Big Issue 10’, 28th November 2007), the EPL practice of its rich clubs buying ready-made stars from around the world, has contributed to more overseas players than in any other league. At times this season, barely 30 English players have been in action for the 20 Premier League clubs. The reasons (or excuses, whichever is applicable) vary from arguing that the English players are not good enough, strange, when the clubs themselves coach them; to criticizing the clubs for not giving their own graduates opportunities to gain experience. Barcelona’s Academy boasts among its graduates the following: Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol, Cesc Fabregas, Pepe Reina, Gerard Pique, Mikel Arteta, Bojan Krkic, Albert Joquera and Oleguer (all from Spain); Lionel Messi (Argentina), and Giovani dos Santos Ramirez (Mexico). It might however prove beneficial in the long run. The Premiership has produced three CL finalists in four years. It is easy to blame Arsenal FC coach, Arsene Wenger’s policy of playing non-Englishmen in his squad, while conveniently forgetting that Liverpool’s own double winning side of 1986 was comprised almost completely of non-English players. Is a country like Britain (pop. 50 m) capable of mass producing football players like Brazil (pop. 185 m)? It seems to me that the British Isles have a much smaller pool of potential players to draw from. It could be time for this whole debate to come to an end and countries concentrate more on learning from those different from them. A case in point is Celtic FC visiting the Barcelona Academy to learn more, so that they in turn can start a similar venture in their native Scotland.
The irony is not lost on the writer that yesterday’s last 16 clash, featured two ‘foreign’ coaches, Rafael Benitez (Liverpool and Spain) and Fabio Capello (England’s Italian national team Manager), in attendance. While generally supporting the Barcelona way of grooming homegrown players (which true patriot wouldn’t want that?), it does not mean that countries, such as England (in this case), cannot learn some soccer-related basics as ball possession, ball hoarding, short passing, shielding of the ball and defending tight with less than 11 men, etc. from their opponents, Inter Milan. Despite enjoying 30% possession yesterday, the Italians still showed how comfortable they are on the ball during the few times they’d stroke it amongst themselves.
