I thought Guadaloupe was still a part of France, so how do they have their own National team? Is it similar to the USA/Puerto Rico situation? I'm just asking out of curiousity. If I'm wrong, please correct me since I don't know very much about the Caribbean countries national sides.
Ditto. I'm guessing that it's more like Catalunya and the Basque Country occasionally having "national" team games even though they are part of Spain. According to Alex1 in WR, here are some French players hailing from Guadaloupe: Thierry Henry Louis Saha Pascal Chimbonda Lilian Thuram Marius Trésor Luc Sonor William Gallas Philippe Christanval Sylvain Wiltord Mikael Silvestre Not a bad list!
Guadeloupe is departement d'outre mer which means oversea territory. It means that people from Guadeloupe are french, they vote for presidential elections they elect representant to the french house of representants and senators to the senat. If you were born in Gualedoupe or if your parents were you have to play for France. However because it's very hard to play for France since France is one the top NT in the world and because Guadeloupe is situated in the Americas FIFA allow them to play as a NT. It's the same for French Polynasia, Martinique,and French Guyana( where i'm from on my father's side ). It's interesting that Jocelyn Angloma played for both France and Guadeloupe.
As you likely know, they are not a member of FIFA.. Concacaf permits them to play The Gold Cup, obviously.. The Wikipedia page has more on them.. Mostly players and famous players who have played for France who have roots in Guadeloupe such as Henry.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadeloupe_national_football_team
Marius Tresor, Luc Sonor, Thierry Henry, William Gallas, Mikael Sylvestre, Franck Sylvestre, Alain Couriol, Louis Saha, Olivier Dacourt, Bernard Diomede, Jean Pierre Cyprien, Jocelyn Angloma, Philippe Christanval, Pascal Chimbonda, Lilian Thuram... all of them are of Guadeloupean ancestry. Steve Marlet, Daniel Charles Alfred, Jonathan Zebina, Gerad Janvion, Eric Abidal, Nicolas Anelka, Xerces Louis, Paul Chillan and Sylvain Wiltord are from Martinique Bernard Lama, Raoul Diagne, Jean Claude Darcheville, Julien Faubert and Florent Malouda from Guyana (South America) Christian Karembeu from New Caledonia Laurent Robert from Reunion Island ( Indian OCean ) Pascal Vahirua French Polynasia ( PAcif Ocean ) All of them except Jean Claude Darcheville are or were french international players. And many, many other players are from the overseas territory. To be honest they ( We !! ) could be world champion Active players --------------------Henry---Anelka---------------------- ----------Malouda------------------------Wiltord-------- -----------------Dacourt-----Faubert------------------- ---Abidal------Sivestre--------Gallas---------Thuram---- ----------Grandel ( he's subsitute in Utrech ) ------------ subs : Zebina, Marlet, Saha, Cimbonda, Darcheville
David Regis who played in Strasbourg in the 90s ? I don't remember him as International but I'm going to investigate
Ho yes but he played for The US http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Regis I was talking about the players who played for France this why I didn't mention him. But this is true that he's another International french carribean talent.
It's interesting that Jocelyn Angloma played for both France and Guadeloupe.[/quote] I'm trying to figure out how this is possible. Is it b/c they are not part of FIFA? I thought if a player played for one country's Senior National Team they couldn't play for another country's team.
yes, it's because Guadeloup is not part of FIFA. Guadeloupe is like those Spanish regional team. eg one player can play for both Andalucia and Spain. So if they want they can bring all those French international with Guadeloupian origins and easily win the Gold cup. I think only well-know players they have this time are Jocelyn Angloma and David Sommeil. Also as a consequence, any friendly against Guadeloupe is not a FIFA sanctioned friendly so doesn't affect the FIFA ranking.
He's from Mauritius Island ( Indian Ocean ) and his ancestors were from India. I didn't mention him because Mauritius isn't a french oversea territorry. I didn't either mention the players of "direct" african ancestry ( Desailly, Adams, Tigana, Boli, Alou and Lassana Diarra, Govou, Mavuba, Evra, Boumsong, Vieira... )
It's interesting, the relation between Guadaloupe and Haiti. Both French Islands similarly founded, ethnically the same group of people, Haiti independent and Guadeloupe still attached to France. When I coached in FL, we always had greatly skilled Haitian players that could teach a thing or two to the others, but teamwork and strategy was a whole other problem. Their footwork and dribbling was far better than most kids I coached, like they were (cliche>)"born with the ball at their feet" My guess is, there's not much organization in Haiti, when it comes to structuring a youth program and scouting up and coming players with talent. The passion for the game seems to be there, but there's no where to go after you've beaten the local park team. No money, no time, and no organization Haiti is so similar but so different from Guadeloupe. Hence the long list of French nats with roots there.
Another question (my apologies if this is annoying already ) but have any players of Haitian descent represented France? Metro
The big force of french carribean players ( Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana ) is that they can play in metroplolitan France where they benefit of the french football youth system which is one of the best in World. Unfortunately Haitans young players can't.
I don't remember to have seen an Haitian descent player in France NT. Even in Ligue1 they are not numerous. I remember Marc Vivien Foe a few years ago in Lens and Monaco and there was a player in Nantes but I don't remember his name.
The player in NAntes is Jean JAcques Pierre who is on the actual Haitian Gold Cup team. Marc Vivien Foe on the other hand, well I could have sworn he was from cameroon...
Perhaps it's as simple as they've never applied. Perhaps it is something completely different. Also as to The Mighty Frog's list, I could swear Thierry Henry was Martiniquais and not Guadeloupan.
Maybe because the administrative situation is not the same. Guadeloupe, Reunion Island, Martinique and French Guyana are oversea departement ( like Hawaii if you want ). Tahiti is an oversea territory so they have more autonomy ( like Puerto Rico, American Samoa or US VIrgin Islands ). However I'm not sure if it's the reason why Tahiti is a FIFA member .
Guadeloupe,Martinique,French Guyana and Reunion are all overseas departments of France with no right to apply for FIFA membership.For football reasons having to do with the vast distance from metropolitan France,they have been given the right to play as separate entities in regional tournaments ONLY,always under the French flag and anthem. Tahiti and New Caledonia are overseas territories with extensive autonomy so they were affiliated to FIFA just like other dependencies e.g Puerto Rico,Faroe Islands,US Virgin Islands,Bermuda etc.