France National Team

[Geo V]

Don't agree with that, if you were born on a 2 week holiday in Spain that would mean you would have to play for Spain?

An example is Beckhams lad, Are you saying that if he becomes a pro footballer he has to play for Spain?

You would have irresponsible parents if they the mum decided to fly out 8 months and two weeks into a pregnancy .

I suppose it should be the country of your birth and either of your parents birth place. All this nationalized rubbish and mums uncles step-daughters neighbours qualification ends up making a mockery of nationalities and what it means to pull the shirt on for a nation. I'm sure there are plenty of people who do put on a shirt the nation that they represent and dont really give a fook about them. You see loads who get political asylum in athletics winning golds for countries that they shouldnt be, just like that Kenyan who switched over to the USA recently and won a World Championship gold over 800 metres I think.

BTW, for Finnegan, Koumas would be playing for Cyprus if we weren't so shite

[Finnegan]

Yeah. Wrexham is known to be the tropical, exotic, paradise center of Cyprus.

[Geo V]

Yeah. Wrexham is known to be the tropical, exotic, paradise center of Cyprus.

My comment may be in jest but still I am sure that quite a lot of players who have more than one option either choose the country that they think will befit there skills (good players) or pick the worst country if they thought that they wouldn't be able to squeeze into the better nation. I think a lot of it has little to do with what they actually feel about national pride and thats where the current laws fall down IMO.

[Finnegan]

Possibly true, but in Koumas' case, if you're born and raised in Wrexham you're probably not going to identify so strongly with Cyprus. I know a lot of Cypriots living here remain very passionate about their homeland, but I don't think Wrexham quite has the strong Cypriot communities you find in North London.

[Koke]

Well Hargreaves isn't English born for a start.

But Owen Hargreaves is English, and as I understand it he is result of sexy time between the English couple Margret and Colin Hargreaves. The fact that Canada hosted this whole affair is irrelevant. To put it more bluntly, if you come into this world on the back of an English spunk via an English **** your English.

The French is the other way round. Patrick Vieira for example were born in Senegal but opted to play for France after he spent most of his life in France. Hardly a crime is it? Now as apexgeo was saying, sometimes its due to hypocritical bullshit bigotry and sometimes racist. There are some Arsenal 'fans' out there (and I'm using the word fans lightly because they are not fans of the beautiful game) who hate the fact that Arsenal are full of black players. France are quite similar, during the World Cup there was a game where 7 out of the 11 players were black. The French (as I understand it) don't seem to have a problem with it, it just happen to be those other backward countries ala Lithuania who probably never seen a black person in real life.

I wonder how people here in England would react if someone with the name of Foluwashola "Shola" Ameobi made the first team. I doubt he'll ever make it, but imagine if he did.

[hairy]

I wonder how people here in England would react if someone with the name of Foluwashola "Shola" Ameobi made the first team. I doubt he'll ever make it, but imagine if he did.

People didn't like a Swede managing the team so they wont like that

[Alexikokopops]

People didn't like a Swede managing the team so they wont like that

I wouldn't like it because Shola Ameobi's shite.

[Stevosevic]

Ryan Giggs could have played for England you know!

[Webbo]

I believe Gigg's dad was half black, so it's possible that he could of been eligible for another country.

[Flynny]

Sierra Leone, as already mentioned.

I've mentioned Ryan Giggs NOT being eligable for England about 3 times in the last couple of months as well. Probably not as much as Finnegan, but then who talks about Wales more than him?

[Pete_foxes]

I don't have any major problems with this. Although It does seem slightly unfair to those African countries that could possibly have a far better team had some of these players been playing for them. So why is it that they qualify to play for France?

[Geo V]

Possibly true, but in Koumas' case, if you're born and raised in Wrexham you're probably not going to identify so strongly with Cyprus. I know a lot of Cypriots living here remain very passionate about their homeland, but I don't think Wrexham quite has the strong Cypriot communities you find in North London.

The whole Koumas thing is more to do with jealousy . As someone whose parents were born in Cyprus, I do look out for Cypriots in sports and hope that a few come through from an Island that houses about 650,000 Greek Cypriots. Unfortunately, we haven't got more than a bronze medal winning high-jumper and an improving tennis player who is currently rated above Andy Murray! (Marcos Baghdatis).

As for Cypriots in London, you`ll know there are plenty as you live here but its not cut and dry on who they would represent if they became able enough to play International sports. Most of my mates would opt for England I reckon!

[Jon the Hat]

I don't have any major problems with this. Although It does seem slightly unfair to those African countries that could possibly have a far better team had some of these players been playing for them. So why is it that they qualify to play for France?

Various reasons... Some becuase they migrated with their families when they were young, and some becuase they have French Nationality through their parents who where residents of the French colonies. In general the french approach to colonies was to actually make them part of France. They usually became "departments" in the same way as the areas of France itself. This meant full national rights, and even though this is not necessarily the case anymore, some people are eligible for French passports via the ancestry route.