Football Perspectives: The Fight for African Talent

Football Perspective

The Fight for African Talent

December 1, 2006

The emergence of an increasing crop of up-and-coming footballing talent, who have their roots in Africa, but who have been schooled in Europe, is creating an unusual arena of skirmish...

African and European countries are now openly jostling to persuade several prodigious players to commit their international futures to their respective causes, in most cases causing an emotive pull on the heart strings.

In recent weeks, there have been accusations of underhand dealings and a growing animosity as countries turn up the pressure for the best talent.

Ibrahim Afellay of PSV Eindhoven, for example, is the subject of a tense tussle between his native Morocco and the Netherlands where he was born.

The promising midfielder has played for the Dutch league at junior level but can still, before his 21st birthday in April, opt to

Ibrahim Afellay

Dutch coach Marco Van Basten is hoping Ibrahim Afellay plays for Holland instead of Morocco
�MTNfootball.com

play for Morocco, where his immigrant parents hail from.

FIFA regulations allow players with double nationality to change their international allegiance before the age of 21 if they have not yet won a full international cap.

Afellay recently told Dutch television he was still undecided despite persistent wooing by Netherlands coach Marco van Basten and his Moroccan counterpart Mohamed Fakhir.

Earlier in November, PSV Eindhoven accused the Moroccan federation of seeking to sway Afellay and the 18-year-old Ismail Aissati to their cause with generous offers of cash.

�The Moroccan federation have let it be known that they will pay anything to get these youngsters on their side,� Afellay�s agent Ed van Stijn said.

Salomon Kalou

The Netherlands tried to persuade Salomon Kalou to play for the Dutch national team instead of Ivory Coast
�MTNfootball.com

The Dutch have also been involved in two other high profile cases with young African talent.

Their bid to entice Salomon Kalou was thwarted by their own government, who refused the Ivorian striker a passport ahead of this year�s World Cup finals.

And they missed out on Amsterdam-born prodigy Mbark Boussoufa, who enthusiastically opted to play for Morocco in May. The Anderlecht midfielder is now a regular in the North Africans� line-up.

France moved swiftly last month to cap two other talents who had both been called up by African countries.

Both Habib Bellaid and Issiar Dia are French-born but with roots in Tunisia and Senegal respectively, who invited them in October for the 2008 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Instead they featured for the French under-21 side in recent matches against Israel and Sweden.

Nancy striker Dia (19), said he was still keeping his options open.

Bellaid, who played for Racing Strasbourg in Ligue 2, said he still held out hopes of playing for Tunisia where his parents had returned to in recent years. �But I had to honour the call-up from the French coach out of respect for my club and for my coaches,� the 20-year-old said.

The African Diaspora in Europe is expected to continue to deliver more footballing objects of desire for African countries eager to boost their competitiveness in the world arena.

The value of players, whose formative training has been in Europe, is highly regarded by African federations and European-born players in African national teams are no new phenomenon.

When Algeria played France in a friendly at the Stade de France in 2001, there were as many players born in the French Metropole on Algeria�s side as in the French team.

Algeria have been trying to persuade Watford surprise package Hameur Bouazza to their cause while Moroccan newspapers have in recent weeks been highlighting the emergence of 17-year-old Ibrahim Maaroufi, who recently made his debut at Serie A champions Inter Milan.

He was brought up in Brussels and joined Inter from the youth structures of PSV Eindhoven. �The national coach (Rene Vandereycken) came to see me in Milan�, Maaroufi said earlier this month. "He said he is counting on me in the future.�

Nigeria�s interest in Aston Villa�s Gabriel Agbonlahor is likely to speed up a possible England cap for the striker in the New Year.

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