Singing to the Tune of Naturalization

From Angola to Trinidad, there are a number of football players practising their countries’ national anthems in time for the World Cup. They are not in a musical mood because they want to win a karaoke contest or because they are singing in the shower (and we know because WCB has microphones everywhere), but rather because they don’t want to embarrass themselves in front of their naturalized countrymen.

Depending on your point of view, naturalization is either a dirty word or the path to salvation. It either unfairly takes away a spot from a player in your country or it adds a player who will help your team.

As our friends over on this blog point out, the current FIFA rules state this:

“A player must either have lived in a country for at least two years [before he can become a naturalized citizen], or have a parent or grandparent who was born there…Players who have played for one country’s A team at national level are not allowed to change nationality.”

There are no shortage of players and countries taking full advantage of this rule this year. In Trinidad, the Soca Warriors have bolstered their team through the edition of Chris Birchall and Tony Warner, a pair of guys who can tell you which tube to take in London but might struggle to name the capital of T&T.

In Angola, the football federation is scrambling to find players in Portugal who have ties to the former African colony. We see Pedro Emanuel might become Palancas Negras til he dies this summer, while Paulo Figueiredo is already on the Angolan World Cup train.

Fans in Mexico continue to debate whether the Argentine-born midfielder Walter Gaitan will should be the third naturalized player on the Tricolores.

In Tunisia, one of the team’s best players and its most fearsome scoring threat is Francileudo dos Santos who says that his heart will be torn if he is asked to play against his native Brazil. While some in the US would like to see an American-born Italian playing in England suit up for the Yanks this summer.

The list of these types of stories goes on and on. And while many might decry the rule, I think it isn’t necessarily a bad one. In these modern times where borders are increasingly blurred by technology and there is a steady stream of human movement, the fact that national football teams are made up of people from varying backgrounds and nationalities only reflects the reality of the world in which we live. The football pitch is a microcosm of the board rooms, schools and streets.

While the national anthem might come more naturally to some than to others, it doesn’t mean that all don’t have the right to sing it.