Meet Joe Foreigner

Out of the rubble of an England tournament exit, the footballing public are quick to scapegoat the number of foreigner players present in the English Premier League. It is an argument that resurfaces at the beginning of each season as the numbers accelerate. The argument is popular, and the pros and cons have become nauseatingly bland. I do believe that there are two factors that have been overlooked, which I should like to advance here.

1.         Everyone is a foreigner.

Everyone is a foreigner to someone. The French players in the Premier League are foreigners to us, but not to the French, obviously. To say ‘the number of foreigners in our game has depleted the opportunities for English players to play’ is not wholly accurate. Rather, it should be said that ‘the number of foreigners in our game has depleted the opportunities for English players to play in England’. The reason foreigners harm the English game is because, by and large, English footballers are not prepared to play abroad and to be the foreigners in others countries. They hamstring themselves for playing time. This has been to the detriment of the English national team. Many a successful international side has had to rely upon their own players plying their trade as foreigners. The current World and European champions, Spain, provide the highest percentage of foreign players in England today (despite the myth that all Spanish internationals play for Barcelona and Real Madrid). Reina, Mata, Pique, Xabi Alonso, Monreal, Arbeloa, Azpilicueta, Fabregas, Cazorla, Navas, Torres and Soldado have all played in England. The Brazil team of the 90s relied heavily upon key players living as foreigners. Around half the players selected in 1998 and 2002 for Brazil were playing outside South America. Over half the players in the victorious 1998 French squad were playing abroad. This is the nature of the modern game. It is commonplace for a European player to move to the Premier League, while the notion of a British player abroad is often discredited. This has led to some incredible double standards. Former Tottenham Manager David Pleat recently attempted to dissuade Gareth Bale from a move to Spain, claiming that the 24 year old is too young for a move abroad. This statement occurs just weeks after Spurs had signed a 24 year old Brazilian player from his homeland (Paulinho). Within the last 12 months Tottenham has signed two 22 year old foreigners from their respective countries of birth. This double standard is glaringly obvious. It is not the foreigner who is to blame, but the borderline xenophobic attitude of English footballers to the possibility of playing abroad, and of becoming the foreigners themselves.

2.         An unusual definition of a foreigner.

For the purposes of the discussion, a foreigner is defined as any player who is not eligible to play for England. In many areas of life, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland function as one country owing to the historical connection between UK countries. All four countries share a currency. Passports are not required to travel across borders. Even in the sporting realm, the UK operates as one state at times (Olympics, Tennis Eurovision(!) etc.). In general, the English public would not consider a Welshman to be a foreigner per se. An example of this is Pleat’s comment about Bale that he should not move to a foreign country. Of course, in terms of international football, he is already playing in a foreign country. Pundits have often reminisced about the healthy percentage of Scottish players who played for great English clubs in the past. Yet an increase in Scottish players in the Premier League is just as detrimental to the England national team as an increase in French players. We must concede that our situation is rare, perhaps unique. Other countries around the world do not have a conglomeration of other nations functioning as one country. Whatever happens with the increase in overseas players, our league (owing to the history of these Islands) is always going to be flooded with Scottish, Welsh and Irish players. This is always going to spike the foreigner totals and give us a slightly false impression. As of the start of the 2013/14 season, players from Scotland, Wales, Northern and Southern Ireland accounted for 23% of all foreigners, nearly one in every four.

Not only is this not the case in other nations, sometimes the opposite is true. That is to say, for some countries, their historic connections with other nations gives them a bigger pool of players to choose from. Take for example France. A number of African nations have been historically owned by France and this connection has led to players from other ‘French’ nations moving to France to gain French citizenship. To demonstrate this, consider the reliance of the World Cup and European Championship winning French team upon non-French French players! Patrick Viera was born in Senegal, Zinedine Zidane is of Algerian decent, Marcel Descailly was born is Ghana, Lilian Thuram was born in Guadeloupe, Christian Karembeu was born in New Caledonia. These all played significant roles in France’s success. Not only have England been unable to utilise these kinds of connections, but England’s connections have actually depleted the percentage of England-eligible players.

There is one sensible reason why England have had such a disappointing record in tournament football. Quite simply, international success is rare. World Cups, for example, come around every four years. We have only entered 16 times. There have only been eight winners and we are one of them. With Brazil, Italy and Germany choking the competition with 12 combined victories, that simply does not allow for many opportunities for others to win. The legendary Hungarian and Dutch teams never produced a winner. Neither have the powers of USSR or Portugal produced any title winning teams. France and Spain, like England, have only one trophy. Should we have done a little better? Quite possibly. But the response to the underachievement should not be a lazy finger-pointing at Joe Foreigner. England has been producing mediocrity long before foreigners swamped the Premier League.