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Monday, November 11 2024

Zinedine Zidane, Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, Mesut Ozil, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Benoit Assou-Ekotto. What do these World Cup players have in common? All these players are representing to play for a country that they are not originally from.

Retired French national- Zinedine Zidane (Franco-Algerian)
French national- Karim Benzema- (Franco-Algerian)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

French legend Zinedine Zidane and the current French striker Karim Benzema were born to Algerian parents but played for the French national team, Argentinian striker Gonazalo Higuain was originally born in France but plays for Argentinian national team, German midfielder Mesut Ozil is a Turkish- German decent playing for German national team, Kevin-Prince Boateng, half-brother of German defender Jerome Boateng was born from a Ghanaian father and a German mother, but chose to play for the Ghanaian national team, and finally Benoit Assou-Ekotto is a French-Cameroon decent who chose to play for the Cameroonian national team.

Cameroon national- Benoit Assou-Ekotto (French- Cameroonian)

The reasons behind the decision to play for a specific national team was different for each player. Player such as Zidane, Benzema and Higuain chose to play for France and Argentina simply because, although they are of a different descent, they felt that the country that they grew up was more important–but there were some difficulties depending on how they played during their matches. “Basically, if I score, I’m French. And if I don’t score or there are problems, I’m Arab” Said Benzema. On the other hand players like Kevin- Prince Boateng, Boateng chose to play for the Ghanaian national team after he was snubbed by the German national team.

Ghanaian national- Kevin- Prince Boateng (German-Ghanaian)

Choosing which team to play for was a hard decision to make but the process that was not all that easy as it is nowadays in the past. “In the past players could either play or not play for their country, or wait to go through an often-lengthy citizenship process in an adopted country. But since 2010, players have been able to switch their allegiances.” Said David Conrad the author of the article “At the World Cup, there are more French-born players playing against France than for it.”

Argentinian national- Gonzalo Higuain (French born Argentinian)

The World Cup is an International competition among nations, and viewers can enjoy the watching the games by cheering for the team that they are from, but there is a much more deeper story about the individual players, that can enhance your knowledge of the game and also make the games more interesting to watch.

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About Author

Won Suh

WonSeop Suh or Won is a South Korean national and recent Journalism graduate from Colorado State University. All his life Suh lived a nomadic life style as a Third Culture Kid - he grew up in Incheon, South Korea and also lived in countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and the United States. Suh has worked for the Republic of Korea Air Force as Military Police, Seoul Nuclear Security Summit 2012 as a multilingual presidential security interpreter. He brings his wealth of experience and unique global view and understanding of Third Culture Kids to Culturs.

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