WeeklySA_AdminTALENT GALORE: BLACK SOCCER PRODIGIES IN THE AREA!
By Ali Mphaki
The whole world is Africa, if the number of black players featuring for their various European countries in the European Soccer Championships is anything to go by.
Only a few of the 24 countries competing in this year’s Europe’s penultimate tournament don’t have a black player in their squads.
As the late Reggae star Peter Tosh once observed: “As long as you are a black man, you’re an African”.
More recent in his acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards Burna Boy shouted:
“Africa is in the house man; Africa, we’re in the house.” Indeed, it’s been a long time coming for African players since when Andrew Watson made history by being the first black professional player to play in the Football League in Scotland between 1881 and 1883.
The son of a wealthy Scottish sugar planter, his mother was a local British Guianese woman named Hannah Rose, according to Wikipedia.
The colour of his skin was of no significance to his peers, and there is no historical record of racism on the part of the Scottish Football Association.
History will record that Watson won three internal caps for Scotland, his first cap against England in London on March 12, 1881.
Scotland won 6 – 1, which (as of 2019) is still a record home defeat for England. A few days later Scotland played Wales and won 5 -1.
It would be 120 years later for the next black person selected to play for Scotland after Watson, one Nigel Quashie in 2004. Fast forward to 2021, the world of football is littered with black players who are making a mark for themselves and their African folk.
We have Romelu Menama Lukaku, 28, the burly Belgian striker who by Thursday was among the leading goal scorers at the tournament, having scored a brace in their first match against Russia. Having played 96 games for his country, and scored 64 goals, Lukaku is Belgium’s all-time top goalscorer and more is expected of him.
He has also scored more than 300 professional goals in his glittering career. With Belgium losing the semi-final against France at the World Cup 2018, Lukaku and the likes of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, should want to do better this time around, especially with age not on their side.
Leading the French contingent is Kylian Mbappe Lottin, the Paris Saint-Germain forward.
Of both Cameroon (father) and Algerian (mother) parents, the former handball player has earned himself the accolade of being both the second most expensive player and most expensive teenage in the world.
He also holds the record of being the youngest player after Pele to score in a World Cup Final at the 2018 chapter of the tournament where he also received the best young player and French Player of the Year awards for his performances.
Mbappe, 23, is at pole position to emerge as one of the best players of the tournament.
His team mate Paul Pogba is another who cannot be overruled. Playing principally as a central midfielder, Pogba can easily fit in as a deep-lying playmaker, a defensive midfielder and at attacking midfielder.
On his day he has the knack to ignite the French team and give his team the much needed spark.
His best is expected from him if France are to emerge victorious.
Raheem Shaquille Sterling, the England striker born of Jamaican parents is also poised to playing a sterling role for The Three Lions, in what is a relatively easy group. That indeed the whole world is Africa, is further epitomized by the presence of Glen Adiel Kamara, who appears for Finland.
Born into a family of Sierra Leonean descent, Kamara, in the books of Sottish giant killers Rangers, is Finland’s talisman and his countrymen hopes he can turn on his magic and do wonders for his small country.
