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OT: Soccer Thread

jeffbear said:
This question always amuses me. Partly because it's so bloody rare that African teams win anything meaningful outside of Africa. I mean, if African players are what make the difference for France, then you'd think ... say Nigeria would dominate all day every day. Big, developed, relatively wealthy, fairly modern country like that. Maybe what they need is some Frenchmen :0)

BTW ... no shots fired at Habsy because he's hardly the only one wondering.
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More interesting is how no one asked that question of the English team.
 
jeffbear said:
This question always amuses me. Partly because it's so bloody rare that African teams win anything meaningful outside of Africa. I mean, if African players are what make the difference for France, then you'd think ... say Nigeria would dominate all day every day. Big, developed, relatively wealthy, fairly modern country like that. Maybe what they need is some Frenchmen :0)

BTW ... no shots fired at Habsy because he's hardly the only one wondering.
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They are not African though...they are French.

Presnel Kimpembe-Place of birth Beaumont-sur-Oise, France

Djibril Sidibé-Place of birth Troyes, France

Benjamin Mendy-Place of birth Longjumeau, France

Paul Pogba-Place of birth Lagny-sur-Marne, France

N'Golo Kanté-Place of birth Paris, France

Blaise Matuidi-Place of birth Toulouse, France

Thomas Lemar-Place of birth Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe

Kylian Mbappe-Place of birth Paris, France

Ousmane Dembélé-Place of birth Vernon, France

Two players on France were board outside of France,defender Umtiti from Cameroon, and the backup goalie Steve Mandanda from Zaire.

How are they considered African? They are black Frenchmen.
 
GEEMAN said:
I am more amazed at India how they have a billion people and arent a factor in most major sports
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Because they like Cricket. They are the worlds number two ranked country in Cricket.

Kind of like how China isn't a major factor in sports we consider popular, because it is of little interest to them. But in things that they do care about, they are among the best.

Kind of like how Canada is ranked 11th in field hockey. India is ranked 6.
 
Altair said:
They are not African though...they are French.

Presnel Kimpembe-Place of birth Beaumont-sur-Oise, France

Djibril Sidibé-Place of birth Troyes, France

Benjamin Mendy-Place of birth Longjumeau, France

Paul Pogba-Place of birth Lagny-sur-Marne, France

N'Golo Kanté-Place of birth Paris, France

Blaise Matuidi-Place of birth Toulouse, France

Thomas Lemar-Place of birth Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe

Kylian Mbappe-Place of birth Paris, France

Ousmane Dembélé-Place of birth Vernon, France

Two players on France were board outside of France,defender Umtiti from Cameroon, and the backup goalie Steve Mandanda from Zaire.

How are they considered African? They are black Frenchmen.
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Preach it!

Of course Karim Benzema said once, when he scores, he is French, when he doesn't he's an Arab!

Re Umtiti, he moved to France when he was 2. He is French.
 
Altair said:
They are not African though...they are French.

Presnel Kimpembe-Place of birth Beaumont-sur-Oise, France

Djibril Sidibé-Place of birth Troyes, France

Benjamin Mendy-Place of birth Longjumeau, France

Paul Pogba-Place of birth Lagny-sur-Marne, France

N'Golo Kanté-Place of birth Paris, France

Blaise Matuidi-Place of birth Toulouse, France

Thomas Lemar-Place of birth Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe

Kylian Mbappe-Place of birth Paris, France

Ousmane Dembélé-Place of birth Vernon, France

Two players on France were board outside of France,defender Umtiti from Cameroon, and the backup goalie Steve Mandanda from Zaire.

How are they considered African? They are black Frenchmen.
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Well said. I'm also born in Canada from a father from a francophone country in Africa and a mother who's born in Europe. Does this mean I'm not really Canadian? Nonesense.

Well done to the French team. :thumbsup(22):

I especially like Pogba and Mbappé's goal: it validated the French victory!
The Croats were valiant but not good enough. That's sports!

One aspect I especially like is how the French players put all these vids online of themselves celebrating with tons of singing. Too bad hockey is so damn boring in that aspect. I bet if there were more PKs, this would happen... but I digress :couch
 
hablov said:
Well said. I'm also born in Canada from a father from a francophone country in Africa and a mother who's born in Europe. Does this mean I'm not really Canadian? Nonesense.

Well done to the French team. :thumbsup(22):

I especially like Pogba and Mbappé's goal: it validated the French victory!
The Croats were valiant but not good enough. That's sports!

One aspect I especially like is how the French players put all these vids online of themselves celebrating with tons of singing. Too bad hockey is so damn boring in that aspect. I bet if there were more PKs, this would happen... but I digress :couch
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ummmm
did you miss the last month of Ovie?
 
Altair said:
They are not African though...they are French.

Presnel Kimpembe-Place of birth Beaumont-sur-Oise, France

Djibril Sidibé-Place of birth Troyes, France

Benjamin Mendy-Place of birth Longjumeau, France

Paul Pogba-Place of birth Lagny-sur-Marne, France

N'Golo Kanté-Place of birth Paris, France

Blaise Matuidi-Place of birth Toulouse, France

Thomas Lemar-Place of birth Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe

Kylian Mbappe-Place of birth Paris, France

Ousmane Dembélé-Place of birth Vernon, France

Two players on France were board outside of France,defender Umtiti from Cameroon, and the backup goalie Steve Mandanda from Zaire.

How are they considered African? They are black Frenchmen.
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For clarity ... I don't consider them anything other than French. I raised the issue of why anyone would assume that adding "African players" to the pool would elevate France's chances when African teams (by definition, well stocked with African players) never do anything of note.

I find the whole conversation a bit preposterous, frankly.
 
I never said they weren’t French. I just didn’t realize how many Africans emigrated there.
 
France deserved it. Very deep and young squad consider Benzema, Coman, Payet, Koacielny didn't make it (injury, etc). A very deep bench as well.
DD coached like he played. Relying on counters with fast wingers. Dalic coaching was poor in final imo. You can't attack like headless chicken in final but the only reason exolaining this was they played 3x120 so they thought they will be out of gas in 2nd and thats actually happened.
Zidane should still wait for NT job with DD's success, also i am not sure if he wants to take NT job in this stage of career. Usually top notch coaches do it late in career.
Also it was Obvious Subasic pulled the hamstring. Don't know why Dalic didnt go with other keepers. Maybe the gap was huge!!
 
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Habsy said:
I never said they weren’t French. I just didn’t realize how many Africans emigrated there.
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Asking how many Africans are on the french team insinuates that they are not French, as France is not in Africa.

If you had asked how many black players does France have, that would have been different, but the way you phrased it was poor to say the least.

France takes in a lot of citizens from its former colonies, and they happen to like soccer. They make up about 8 percent of the population of France. So they are over represented on the soccer team. Kind of like how black americans make up a large portion of the NBA and NFL despite only making up 14 percent of the American population.
 
Habsy is a racist guy, he is a white trash pretending to be a Malaka [emoji2][emoji2][emoji41]
hablov said:
Well said. I'm also born in Canada from a father from a francophone country in Africa and a mother who's born in Europe. Does this mean I'm not really Canadian? Nonesense.

Well done to the French team. :thumbsup(22):

I especially like Pogba and Mbappé's goal: it validated the French victory!
The Croats were valiant but not good enough. That's sports!

One aspect I especially like is how the French players put all these vids online of themselves celebrating with tons of singing. Too bad hockey is so damn boring in that aspect. I bet if there were more PKs, this would happen... but I digress :couch
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France had 15 out of 23 players with African background. Things have been changed with immigration. We are no more in 1970. Even Germany have done that since 2002 and after France succes in 1998 with immigrant kids. Who would have thought that???
 
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Altair said:
Asking how many Africans are on the french team insinuates that they are not French, as France is not in Africa.

If you had asked how many black players does France have, that would have been different, but the way you phrased it was poor to say the least.

France takes in a lot of citizens from its former colonies, and they happen to like soccer. They make up about 8 percent of the population of France. So they are over represented on the soccer team. Kind of like how black americans make up a large portion of the NBA and NFL despite only making up 14 percent of the American population.
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I specified due to the last names, they weren’t French but your point about former French colonies made sense. Didn’t think of that yesterday. Probably should have.
 
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