"Imported" or minority players on Asian Nat. Teams?

I wonder if that is also true for most larger countries with immigrant popualtions around the world...Australia comes to mind as one that may,may, not fit that mould...

surprised at the lack of hispanic and asian players involved in the US setup although that is getting a lot better...

Holland seems correct, France, though some of their racist attitudes toward black people may be a bit misleading if one looks solely at the French Nats...

England seems correct, but what about Spain, Italy and Germany (Asamoah aside)?

 

If you spent an hour walking around London, you'd think there would be more South Asian (India, Pakistan, etc) players on the team, but they seem to prefer cricket (not to say that soccer shouldn't make a stronger effort to reach out to them).

I've never thought of Spain (aside from the Catalans and Basques) or Italy (Liverani being an exception) as a multi-ethnic countries, but I may be wrong on that.
Interestingly, several players on the Turkey squad in the World Cup were actually born in Germany. If every player had played for his nation of birth, Germany and Turkey would have had very different looking sides.

 

Makes sense about the Cricket as that was the sport of choice when they were colonised by Britain...so footy is always seen as the second sport there...kinda like the rugby and footy in Oz...

As far as Spain and Italy go, it was more about the relationship with the South American countries and the those players that may have more native Indian, or imported Africian/slave descent like in Brazil for example...

I know Italy has always had a relationship with the North East of Africa...from Egypt down to Ethiopia...(starting with the Roman empire and continuing up to now...if you include Libya as well)so I was wondering as far as immigration goes anyhow, if there are many immigrants from these countries, why are they in general not represented in the greater footballing culture?

 

I only included full Asians... Chung is part-Jamaican.

 

I thought he was part canadian?

 

His ancestors went to Jamaica from China. Somehow, he was born in Canada. I don't know whether he is part-Jamaican. There was a Vietnamese who played for Norway. The name escaped me..... and another Thai for Wales or Ireland.

As for immigrants in Europe, I just did not see many non-European immigrants in Spain or Italy as I had seen South Asians in England or Arabs/Africans/Asians in France. I heard about the African populations in Italy, but just did not see many. I think the "Africans" since Roman time have been assimulated into the general Italian populations.

As for Germany, they has somewhat successfully incorporated the German Turks into their system. Mehmet Scholl and the German Turks on the Turkish NT are good examples. They also had an German Iranian playing in Bundesliga.

 

Thanks for that Goat man...

 

8 players on Turkey's World Cup squad were born in Germany. You add Muzzy Izzet, who spent his entire life in England, that's 9 players out of 23 born outside of Turkey.

You have to wonder how much Basturk would have helped after Ballack was suspended for the Final, or if they had Ilhan Mansiz coming off the bench.

I believe Scholl is the only player of Turkish descent that played for Germany in WC 2002. From what I've been reading, the Turkish federation has actively scouts German-born players of Turkish descent.

 

One other intersting point, Italy and Germany both capped their first black players only in 2001 and 2002 respectively. I don't recall it being a big deal in Germany, but there was quite a reaction in Italy.

I know India and Pakistan are scouting for players of Indian and Pakistani origin, respectively. I'm sure most of the players would be British citizens, but several may "emigrate" to have an opportunity at international soccer.

Sachin

 

Actually, Germany is faily muti-ethnic in their makeup:

Nueville is from Swiss parents of French descent.
Klose is from Poland I believe. Miroslav is not a traditional German name
Asamoah is from Ghana
Scholl is Turkish
Someone else (I forget who now) was from Austria.

Sachin

 

Actually, Asamoah is the first black player to play for unified Germany. Erwin Kostedde, a son of a US serviceman became the first black player to be capped by West Germany in 1974.
http://www.soccernet.com/europe/news/2001/0530/20010530germanyblack.html

But I was wondering what kind of reaction Liverani got when he was selected for Italy.

I think the Indian federation has tried to get Harpal Singh and Michael Chopra to play for India, but they're both cap-tied to England, iirc. But there seem to be many players of Indian and Pakistani origin in the English youth system.