Written by Elliot Ross
The CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland (they study football) recently put out an interactive map trying to show where footballers playing in the top five European leagues come from. Unsurprisingly, West Africa’s big five – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Cameroon – dominate the African numbers, each contributing around 20 players. Mali has ten, South Africa four, and perennial trophy-hoisters Egypt just two. Ghanaian representation in the big leagues has more than doubled in just the last four years, but overall the numbers are pretty flat, bad news for anyone fretting about the “progress” of African football.
Where do footballers playing in the top five European leagues come from?
January 27, 2012 By 3 Comments
Tunisian Coke
January 24, 2012 By 1 Comment
The Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) kicked off on Saturday, and things are already getting pretty interesting. Tunisia have beaten Morocco 2-1 last night. With Morocco being one of the favorites in the tournament, the win was unexpected and even Tunisia’s coach Sami Trebelsi admitted to being “surprised” at the “standard of play” by the North African nation. Perhaps the team’s rigor can be attributed to the national pride that has come with their recent revolution, which triggered the events that eventually became the Arab Spring. Not ever one to miss out an opportunity to ride any (Mexican?) wave, Coca-Cola has cashed in on the spirit of revolution, as they did in post-Mubarak Egypt as Sophia Azeb pointed out. They released this video for the Africa Cup of Nations with Si Lemhaf, one of the music groups who gained fame for their catchy videos during the revolution through social media. Luckily for Coke, the Tunisian colors match theirs; it makes product placement just that bit more seamless.
The French advantage
January 16, 2012 By 2 Comments
Academic and soccer fan Andrew Guest previews the 2012 African Cup of Nations for Football is Coming Home. He points to the French influence on teams that qualfied for the finals that start later this week. The post that comes complete with a table illustrating his findings: “The French influence this year seems ubiquitous; 9 of 16 teams have Francophone history, the largest delegation of foreign coaches are French (4, compared to 7 locals—which is a fairly significant local contingent compared to recent tournaments), and 8 of 15 squads draw more players from French professional teams than from any other foreign league system (the 16th squad — Sudan — has an entirely domestic roster).“
“Your dad washes elephants, your mother’s a whore”
April 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Tottenham Hotspur fans, reacting in disbelieve to how their team gets annihilated by Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid in the first leg of the teams’ UEFA Champions League semi-final match, pull the race card:
Tottenham are unlikely to face any sanction from Uefa regarding the chants directed at [Emmanuel] Adebayor during the match in Spain. The visiting fans directed the same chants – “Your dad washes elephants, your mother’s a whore” – at Adebayor when he was playing for their north London rivals, Arsenal, for more than three seasons. Tottenham admitted that the chants were offensive but denied they were racist.
But Uefa confirmed that there was “nothing in the [match] delegate’s report” that would initiate an investigation into the abuse, so unless the governing body received notification of an offence from stadium security or the police, Spurs will not be charged. Regarding the chant, a Tottenham spokesperson said: “[It] has been previously discussed with the Crown Prosecution Service, who do not consider it racist.”
No Comment
April 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
There’s a labor dispute between the NFL, which runs American football, and players (the fight is really about about greedy owners trying to make lots more money at the players’ expense). This means players have time on their hands. Chad Ochochinco (friend of Kaka and Ronaldo) briefly tried his hand at a career in professional soccer; the lesser known Larry Fitzgerald, a receiver with the Arizona Cardinals, tries to outjump a Masai on a trip to Kenya.
The Beautiful Game
March 11, 2011 By 3 Comments
Correction: You don’t have to be a football fanatic, be a supporter of the English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur or–for some of this blog’s readers–care whether the club has African players on its books–they have*–but you will enjoy this piece of animation of English player Gareth Bale’s goals earlier in the club’s Champions League campaign against Inter Milan, the defending champions. Tottenham are through to the quarterfinals after beating another Italian club AC Milan this week.
‘Africa’s First World Cup’ Revisited
March 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We’re allowed to talk about the 2010 World Cup until 2014. Later today our man, historian of African soccer, Peter Alegi, will deliver the keynote address at the 7th Sports in Africa Symposium at Ohio University. Since few of us are in Athens, don’t panic: The whole thing–including Peter’s keynote–will be webcasted live here. Here’s the description:
Sunday Ephemera No. 4
September 26, 2010 By 2 Comments
Sean Jacobs
This is worth remembering. In 2004 the Liberian footballer George Weah was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the Espys. (For those who don’t care: that’s sports channel ESPN’s versions of the Oscars.)
This is the man who scored the greatest goal of all time and the only African player to win the World Player of the Year and European Player of the Year. Beat that. (BTW, Weah is contemplating a run in Liberia’s presidential elections next year.)
