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More football and less Brexit, please

2022-10-18T11:03:56.409Z


Among the 22 players who played Liverpool-City there were eleven nationalities Watching the exciting Liverpool-City on Sunday one could have noticed many things. In the constant bustle on the wings of both Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, which ended with the German sent off but the Catalan could well have gone to the locker room a little earlier when he received with more than a fuss the intervention of the VAR that would end up annulling the goal that seemed to put City ahe


Watching the exciting Liverpool-City on Sunday one could have noticed many things.

In the constant bustle on the wings of both Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, which ended with the German sent off but the Catalan could well have gone to the locker room a little earlier when he received with more than a fuss the intervention of the VAR that would end up annulling the goal that seemed to put City ahead on the scoreboard.

Or how the slightest of t-shirt spurts could knock down a player of Fabinho's physical stature (1.88 meters tall) and how for some referees that is a foul and, for others, it is not.

Or, speaking of referees, one is also struck by the serious clown face of the other day, Anthony Taylor,

But there was an aspect perhaps much more striking than all that: more than a Premier League match, Anfield seemed to be playing a Nations League match because among the 22 players who initially took the field there were no less than 11 nationalities.

At the top were England, Brazil and Portugal (four players each), followed by Spain and the Netherlands (two) and Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Scotland and Egypt (one player).

The changes gave the opportunity to see a Uruguayan, an Argentine and a Greek.

City is especially multinational: 10 nationalities among the 12 players who spoke that afternoon.

Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not so obvious that the Premier is the most international of the five major European leagues.

According to data from the FBREF.com website, players of 63 different nationalities have participated in the Premier this season, the same as in the League but less than in the Bundesliga (66), the French Ligue 1 (68) and Calcio ( 70).

But the Premier is the major league that has used the fewest national players (183 against 361 foreigners), followed by the Bundesliga (217 - 365), Calcio (238 - 365), Ligue 1 (250 - 306) and the League , the only one in which more nationals have played than foreigners (344 – 228).

The Premier is the queen of the leagues because it is the one with the most money and the one that attracts the most players from the other four major leagues (76), clearly ahead of Italy (59), Germany (51), Spain (27) and France (23).

If the English, who in 2016 voted massively in favor of Brexit and dragged the whole of the country to leave the European Union, had paid a little more attention to football, perhaps history would have been written differently.

The comparison makes sense because Brexit is above all a nostalgic movement (racist, some say with very good reason...) that rejects changes such as the arrival of foreigners, multiculturalism and the dilution of local traditions in a country open to the rest of the world. .

Something similar could have happened in English football, in which there is no lack of voices that miss the old

First Division

with its kick-forward football dominated by English, Irish and Scottish players.

And they blame the foreign invasion for the constant failures of the England team.

Two facts for those who think so.

One: England has always failed, with and without foreigners.

Two: the most successful European teams in the last 10 World Cup and European Championship editions are France (4 trophies), Spain (3) and Italy (3).

There are 123 French and 58 Spaniards playing in the other four major leagues, compared to just 24 Germans and 17 English.

Maybe that influences.

It is true that there are only 14 Italians abroad but it is already known that, play well or play poorly, Italy is married to victory and does not pay attention to statistics or common sense...

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2022-10-18

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