The most African World Cup ever?

The most popular sport in the world - football- played in its greatest competition- the World Cup - never fails to conjure great drama, wonderful narratives, and stories within stories. World Cup Brazil 2015 has not let us down.

One element that has struck me profoundly watching the deluge of World Cup games has been the amount of Black players on show, not just of course from the African nations which you’d expect, but also from the two great footballing continents of America and Europe. It begs the question, ‘is this the Blackest World Cup ever?

In the past two or three World Cups both England and France have always fielded a significant number of Black players and that has continued and in France’s case increased. What is new and significant are teams such as Belgium, Germany, Italy and Portugal, footballing giants who all have Black players.

The other big factor in this phenomenal World Cup African Diaspora is the Latin American countries, particularly those from Central America. Honduras, Costa Rica and Ecuador are not majority Black countries, and yet the teams they send out you might be forgiven in believing they are.

What’s interesting is that all Latin American countries have deep seated racial problems, often barely acknowledged much less dealt with, yet millions of fans from these and other European countries are willing their multicultural teams on to raise spirits and pride for their national side.

And then within these national stories intriguing as they are complex, there are individual tales played out such as the Boateng half brothers, one playing for Germany the other for Ghana.

Ghana’s Prince Boateng will meet his brother Jerome who plays for Germany. Both have the same Ghanaian father, whilst they have different German mothers. Despite their chosen nationalities the two brothers are close, but when the two nations clash this Saturday with the footballing world watching the brotherly love will go out the window.

The personal stories are not always wondrous. The often maligned Italian striker Mario Balotelli, adopted by white Italian parents, became the nation’s hero after scoring the winning goal against England in last weekend’s World Cup clash. But to a significant number of Italians, it doesn’t matter want brilliance he affords his nation; to them he will never be seen as Italian. Worse still, heaven forbid he puts a foot wrong, Balotelli will unwittingly unleash the nation’s latent racial prejudices.

Nevertheless, whether it’s on a national or individual basis this world cup as never been so Black.

Unravelling the national and personal politics of this racial dynamic is probably a thesis for a number of academic doctorates. All of which I’d love to read.

Lastly, and with some sadness I don’t quite see an African nation making it to the last four of this year’s World Cup, but then we shouldn’t complain: With the journey of African descendants who make up a disproportionate number of players in the world, including Brazil, Africans in one form or another will surely be playing a part in the final games of the 2014 World Cup.

That’s just part of the beautiful game.

Simon Woolley