The French's biggest weapon

Stacksey

COLONISATION

Its a pity back in the day we werent too preocupied with our own independance

CHD

k

Mitch Connor

Uncomfortable.

meditraitor

Je ne sais quoi

gustavo

Good man , I'm glad we've never taken advantage of anything like that

raido9

Fair point when you look at some of the great french players of the modern generation.

Viera, Desailly, Malouda, Evra, Sagna.

And to some extent Zidane, Makalele, Thuram, Henry, Saha, Wiltord, Benzema, Diarra and Nasri.

event

saha, wiltord and henry were born in paris
nasri born in marseille

i dont really get the point?

Stacksey

event wrote: »

saha, wiltord and henry were born in paris
nasri born in marseille

i dont really get the point?

The point is that they are of African Descent which is a result of French colonisation, we've got the "granny rule" here which helps us a bit and hopefully in January we can snap up a few players

Aidric

Ooh la la.

Mr_Roger_Bongos

It's the open door policy France had to immigration after WW2, that re-populated/re-built the country that they have to thank for such a diverse mix of citizens.

Though i'd say your partly correct in that the great grand parents of some of today's French team came from French speaking colonies...."SENEGAL Patrick, it's a country in Africa, why don't you go play for them?!"

O dear.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Stacksey

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

no when new FIFA rules come to pass

JPA

Stacksey wrote: »

The point is that they are of African Descent which is a result of French colonisation, we've got the "granny rule" here which helps us a bit and hopefully in January we can snap up a few players

You realise every country has the so called granny rule right?

Stacksey

JPA wrote: »

You realise every country has the so called granny rule right?

Yeah but we probably take advantage of it most, we need to

GavRedKing

Meh, some players want to play for the country they were born in and some wnat to play for the country with the better chance of success and some players are just that good at an early age the scout spot them, and get them to represent the country at youth level and that would generally mean a player will play right the way up with that country.

Sheepy99

imagine if we had colonised africa ....we'd be unstoppable .

keane2097

What's the French for "Va Va Voom"?

pickarooney

Wasn't it colonisation that gave us access to the English language and the other cultural ties that make it so easy for Irish players to fit into teams in the UK? We'd be fairly jiggered if we were depending on lads who had never taken the magic plane to represent us.

Smegball

Whats your point half of our team is English

Morzadec

Crap thread.

Would be like me posting up after 1990 'Irelands' Greatest Weapon - Emigration'.

Can you name me any French players in the squad now that weren't born in France? We are at the stage of 3rd generation immigrants now in France and they should (rightfully) be considered just as French as any white person. This thread suggests that they aren't.

Bobalicious93

Morzadec wrote: »

Can you name me any French players in the squad now that weren't born in France?

Evra and Malouda AFAIK weren't born in France.

Not that that matters of course

Morzadec

So less than the Irish squad to be fair!

Lol just wikied Malouda:

'He is considered to be one of the best players in the world today' :eek:

Browney7

The Lithuanians beat you to it I think.

http://images.worldcupblog.org/fra/Lithuania%20bienvenue.jpg

tolosenc

Bobalicious93 wrote: »

Evra and Malouda AFAIK weren't born in France.

Not that that matters of course

Evra is Senegalese. Malouda is from France Outre-Mer.

GLaDOS

Morzadec wrote: »

Lol just wikied Malouda:

'He is considered to be one of the best players in the world today' :eek:

Well, relative to the amount of footballers in the world, he is

eddiehead

So this thread ISN'T about Claude Makelele?

_blank_

Every damn country is at this.

Germany have a couple of Polish lads.

Portugal have Brazilians.

Also, I doubt if Paul McGrath, Chris Hughton, Terence Phelan,, Clint-on, Leon Best et al are one hundred percent pure green-blooded Irishmen.

SlickRic

Des wrote: »

Also, I doubt if Paul McGrath, Chris Hughton, Terence Phelan,, Clint-on, Leon Best et al are one hundred percent pure green-blooded Irishmen.

:eek:

f*ck off...

SantryRed

This thread is so ironic it's rediculous.

LowOdour

eddiehead wrote: »

So this thread ISN'T about Claude Makelele?

Damn you, claude makelele was going to be mentioned in my witty remark :mad:

shane86

Smegball wrote: »

Whats your point half of our team is English

What year are you living in, 1990? On average about 3 of our 14 players on any given night are English born.

Bobalicious93 wrote: »

Evra and Malouda AFAIK weren't born in France.

Not that that matters of course

Evra was. Not sure but I think Malouda was born and raised on one of the foreign colonies. No problem with someone who was born abroad but grew up in France but having colonial layers on the mainland team is a bit iffy tbh.

In fairness, with so many European teams containing at least one player (usually Brazillian) who had no connection to the national team before joining a national league our selection policies are fairly above board (Croatia, Holland, England, Germany, Scotland, Bulgaria, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Italy to name a few have all either tried this scam or at least considered it)

Neil3030

Why are people so pathologically reluctant to discuss race as a variable in anything (good or bad)? The goddam P.C. police (not just here - everywhere) have made it so that as soon as you suggest a cross-sectional inequality between people of different nationalities you should be put in stocks and flogged with a cane (a fair-trade cane, of course).

For whatever reason (social, biological, environmental; combinations thereof) certain populations have evolved/developed in such a way that gives them certain physical attributes, condusive to success at certain sports. If you deny this you are just as ignorant as any card carrying BNP member, if not more.

The fact is, immigration has assisted France enourmously in the standard of their national side. Likewise, I suggest it will assist us enormously in a decade or two, depending on how many Africans/East Europeans decide to stay here. Yes, the French team may all be French citizens, but a lot of these players are decendents of immigrants, so the argument that colonisation/immigration has assisted the present France team is a valid point.

baalthor

eddiehead wrote: »

So this thread ISN'T about Claude Makelele?

Could it be about the former Mrs Makelele? She looks pretty fine in the current M&S ad:)

But on topic ...

Despite owning half the planet the British haven't done so well from their empire in football terms - England have maybe John Barnes and I can't think of anyone else atm (who was actually born in the former colonies)

But then the "Jewel in the Crown" was India, currently midway between the Faroe Islands and Liechtenstein in the FIFA rankings:eek:

After Greece beat France in the 2004 European Championships many of their supporters boasted that their team was 100% Greek as opposed to the "multinational French". Indeed I believe there were comments like "we were playing Africa".

kryogen

Not that it really matters, but Evra was born in Dakar, Senegal, same as Viera actually, Malouda wasnt born in France, neither was Makelele, both Zidanes parents were Algerian as far as i know, but he was born on French soil, same as Benzema, their most capped player Thuram was not born in France! Saha, Wiltord and Chimbonda all come from parents of Guadelope, Nasri and Ben Arfa follow the same pattern as Zidane and Benzema, Desailly is from Ghana, Vikash Dhorasoo anyone?! Mandanda is from Congo, Sagna is of Senegaleese descent, Mavuba born in Angola............

quick google searches FTW!

its not really that important though anymore, all nations do it to an extent, all europeane nations anyway, Deco? what about the Brazilian lad who plays for Japan! Podolski is Polish along with a few other Germans, Hargreaves is kinda half Canadian, half English,em.....half German?? lol

We are a smaller nation, and an island nation, in 20 years time when we have all the immigrants who are coming into the country nows children in our national team we will be damn happy about it if they turn out as good as some of the French lads!

m@cc@

Morzadec wrote: »

Can you name me any French players in the squad now that weren't born in France?

Mandanda
Boumsong
Mavuba
Evra

Bobalicious93 wrote: »

Evra and Malouda AFAIK weren't born in France.

Malouda was born in French Guiana, which is technically considered part of France.

kryogen wrote: »

their most capped player Thuram was not born in France

He was born in Guadaloupe, again a region that's part of France.

Johnny Utah

garlic breath- one whiff and the honeymonster goes crazy!

eZe^

Anyone else expecting to see




The French are playing a weird system, it's essentially a 4-3-3 with the front 3 all being natural strikers. Anelka can do whatever he wants, but Henry's influence is minimized, because he is stuck in two minds. He doesn't know whether to play the wing role he has at Barca, or play just off the striker. Meaning he ends up dropping deep too so that Gignac is completely isolated up top.

patmac

Des wrote: »

Every damn country is at this.

Also, I doubt if Paul McGrath, Chris Hughton, Terence Phelan,, Clint-on, Leon Best et al are one hundred percent pure green-blooded Irishmen.

And what about England Cashley, Ferdinand, Defoe Im sure the National Front wouldn't describe them as English;)

Morzadec

I wonder if the OP will be complaining in 15 years if some player with a Polish name ends up playing and scoring for Ireland?

Nationalities are blurred nowadays. The fact is all these players play for France and want to play for France and they shouldn't be regarded as not French just because of their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents country of origin. or the place of their birth.

My user name is my surname. Needless to say it isn't Irish. I havn't actually got any Irish 'blood' in me. But I was born and raised here and lived all my life here.

If I happened to be amazing at football would the OP have any objections to me playing for Ireland?

Stacksey

Morzadec wrote: »

I wonder if the OP will be complaining in 15 years if some player with a Polish name ends up playing and scoring for Ireland?

Nationalities are blurred nowadays. The fact is all these players play for France and want to play for France and they shouldn't be regarded as not French just because of their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents country of origin. or the place of their birth.

My user name is my surname. Needless to say it isn't Irish. I havn't actually got any Irish 'blood' in me. But I was born and raised here and lived all my life here.

If I happened to be amazing at football would the OP have any objections to me playing for Ireland?

Absolutely not, we need all the players we can get, i'm hoping with our current multi-cultural society that we can produce some talent because we desperately need it, i'm seeing nothing with our youth teams to suggest that a bright future is ahead but at the end of the day we have a population of 4.5 million so there's no pressure on us to be world beaters and it will always be like this

Johner

shane86 wrote: »

What year are you living in, 1990? On average about 3 of our 14 players on any given night are English born.



Evra was. Not sure but I think Malouda was born and raised on one of the foreign colonies. No problem with someone who was born abroad but grew up in France but having colonial layers on the mainland team is a bit iffy tbh.

In fairness, with so many European teams containing at least one player (usually Brazillian) who had no connection to the national team before joining a national league our selection policies are fairly above board (Croatia, Holland, England, Germany, Scotland, Bulgaria, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Italy to name a few have all either tried this scam or at least considered it)

Evra wasn't born In France. Pretty sure he was born in Senegal and lived there for a few years.

Samba

I'll drag this thread up in 16 years time when Danasabe Idris O'Reilly scores the winning goal to take Ireland into the WC final

everdead.ie

Samba wrote: »

I'll drag this thread up in 16 years time when Danasabe Idris O'Reilly scores the winning goal to win Ireland into the WC final

FYP:cool:
common Séan Zidane in twenty years

Fratton Fred

baalthor wrote: »

Despite owning half the planet the British haven't done so well from their empire in football terms - England have maybe John Barnes and I can't think of anyone else atm (who was actually born in the former colonies)

if only India and Pakistan had embraced football the way they embraced cricket:mad:

Still, unlike the French, we are already certain of our place at the world cup (In one of our former colonies:D)

patmac wrote: »

And what about England Cashley, Ferdinand, Defoe Im sure the National Front wouldn't describe them as English;)

You are also forgetting our nine times capped midfielder, Danny Murphy:D

mink_man

meh and how can you be on about france when some of our players are basically english

Frisbee

mink_man wrote: »

meh and how can you be on about france when some of our players are basically english

Basically?

PaulieD

mink_man wrote: »

meh and how can you be on about france when some of our players are basically english

From Saturdays starting eleven,

1-Kilbane
2-St. Ledger
3-Lawrence

Basically English, indeed.:rolleyes: