In a world that is becoming more globalized, we’re seeing an increase in players with dual passports. Germany’s most elite team, Bayern Munich, currently has twelve players in their first team that were eligible to represent more than one nation on the international stage.
This multiculturalism in football is everywhere.
In France, which is the current envy of world football, the national team is predominantly made up of players whose parents immigrated from former colonial territories. Out of all the French players on their 2018 World Cup winning squad, sixteen of them were born and raised in the greater Paris area, where the city’s multi-culturalism and culture of street football greatly influenced their beginnings.
The brightest young talents across Europe have faced the prospect of picking one nation over the other. Whenever a player makes this monumental decision, a public inquest begins into their thought process.
Worse yet, when they make a mistake in a big match, the vitriol aimed at them seems ten times worse compared to their ‘native’ counterparts.