Dark-skinned pioneers in European national football teams: patterns and stories

ABSTRACT

A national football team is perceived as symbol of the national identity. One of the elements of European national identity is race. At the beginning of twentieth century on the Old Continent, most of the state teams’ players were light-skinned, likewise the other citizens of their countries. Nevertheless, since the 1930s it has been observing the growing process of appearance of dark-skinned players in subsequent national football teams. The paper explores the emergence of the dark-skinned football players in European national teams (UEFA members). It considers all the 39 cases of the dark-skinned pioneers in European national teams – from Andrew Watson (Scotland, debut in national team in 1881) to Ariclenes da Silva Ferreira ‘Ari’ (Russia, debut in 2018). Based on them, the text distinguishes the seven waves of this interracial transnationalism.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Horne, ‘Sports Mega-events’; and Manzenreiter, ‘Sport Mega-events’, 355.

2. Horne, ‘Sports Mega-events’; Horne, ‘Assessing the sociology of sport’; and Manzenreiter, ‘Sport Mega-events’, 355.

3. Manzenreiter, ‘Sport Mega–events’, 355.

4. Ibid., 356.

5. Tomlinson and Young, National Identity and Global Sports Events, 3-4.

6. Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization, 17; and Giulianotti, ‘Football and the Politics of Carnival’.

7. Anderson, Imagined Communities; Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 143. It is worth noting that in social studies on football Anderson’s ‘imagined community’ has been reconceptualized (see Blackshaw, ‘Contemporary Community Theory and Football’; and Brown, Crabbe, and Mellor, ‘Introduction’).

8. Lechner, ‘Sport and the nation in the global age’.

9. The phrase ‘dark–skinned’ is used here with reference to people whose skin is naturally of dark colour – light brown, dark brown, red or black (see Muehlenbein, Human Evolutionary Biology, 192–213).

10. Giulianotti and Robertson. ‘Mapping the Global Football Field’.

11. Bairner, ‘Assessing the Sociology of Sport’.

12. Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization, xi; Billig, Banal Nationalism; and Lechner ‘Sport and the Nation in the Global Age’.

13. Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization, 5; and Billig, Banal Nationalism, 398–399.

14. Cronin and Mayall, Sporting Nationalisms, 6–7.

15. Rodríguez, ‘Soccer, Nationalism and the Media in Contemporary Spanish Society’; Barceló, Clinton and Seró, ‘National identity, Social Institutions and Political Values’; and Vaczi, ‘“The Spanish Fury”’.

16. Whigham, ‘“Anyone but England”?’; Finn and Giulianotti, ‘Scots, Scottishness and Scottish Football’; and Bradley, ‘“We Shall not be Moved”!’

17. Murray and Hassan, ‘“They’re Just not My Team”’; and Hassan, ‘A People Apart’.

18. Poli, ‘The Denationalization of Sport’.

19. Goig, ‘Identity, Nation‐state and Football in Spain’; and Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’.

20. Lechner, ‘Sport and the Nation in the Global Age’, 401.

21. Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’, 549.

22. Billig, Banal Nationalism. Sage.

23. Ibid., 119–125.

24. Ortega, ‘Soccer, Nationalism and the Media in Contemporary Spanish Society’; and Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’.

25. Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’, 553–554.

26. Ortega, ‘Soccer, Nationalism and the Media in Contemporary Spanish Society’, 628–629.

27. Seippel, ‘Sports and Nationalism in a Globalized World’; Lechner, ‘Sport and the Nation in the Global Age’, 399–400; Cronin and Mayall, Sporting Nationalisms, 3; and Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization, xi.

28. Poli, ‘Understanding Globalization Through Football’.

29. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’.

30. Gibbons, ‘English National Identity and the National Football Team’; Maguire, ‘Globalization, Sport and National Identities’; and Lechner, ‘Sport and the Nation in the Global Age’, 405.

31. Hartmann, ‘Beyond the Sporting Boundary’.

32. Burdsey, ‘“If I Ever Play Football, Dad, Can I Play for England or India?”’; Fletcher and Hylton, ‘“Race”, Whiteness and Sport’; and Carrington, McDonald, ‘Introduction: ‘Race’, Sport and British Society”, 1-13.

33. Ferriter, ‘The Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity in Sport’, 23.

34. Ibid., 24.

35. Ibid., 29.

36. Bradbury, ‘Institutional Racism, Whiteness and the Under-representation’; Doidge, Racism and European Football, 178; Cashmore and Cleland, ‘Why aren’t There More Black Football Managers?’; and Les, Crabbe, and Solomos, ‘Racism in football’.

37. Lusted, ‘Playing Games with “Race”’; and Fletcher and Hylton, ‘“Race”, Whiteness and Sport’.

38. Burdsey, ‘One Week in October’; Burdsey, Race, Ethnicity and Football, 5; and Bradbury, ‘Institutional Racism, Whiteness and the Under-representation’.

39. Agergaard and Engh, ‘Globalization, Migration and Racialization in Sport’, 109–110.

40. Bonnett, ‘Who was White?’

41. Goldberg, ‘Racial Europeanization’.

42. Beaman, ‘Are French People White?’, 551.

43. Twine and Gallagher, ‘The future of Whiteness’; and Goldberg, ‘Racial Europeanization.’

44. Twine and Gallagher, ‘The Future of Whiteness’.

45. Ibid.

46. Burdsey, ‘“If I Ever Play Football, Dad, Can I Play for England or India?’”.

47. Carrington and McDonald, ‘Whose Game is it Anyway?’, 3-4.

48. Burdsey, ‘“If I Ever Play Football, Dad, Can I Play for England or India?’”

49. Ibid.; Carrington and McDonald, ‘Whose Game is it Anyway?’

50. Carrington and McDonald, ‘Whose game is it anyway?’

51. Carrington, ‘“Football’s Coming Home” but Whose Home?’

52. Back, Crabbe, and Solomos, ‘“Lions and Black Skins”’.

53. Back, Crabbe, and Solomos, ‘Racism in Football’.

54. Carrington, ‘“Football’s Coming Home” but Whose Home?’

55. See: Mitchell, ‘Fate of Scotland’s First Black Footballer Revealed’. The other one, Arthur Wharton (1865–1930), is generally considered the first black professional football player in the United Kingdom or even worldwide. However, he did not play in the national team (see: Vasili, The First Black Footballer, Arthur Wharton, 1865–1930).

56. Read more: Adams, ‘The Unmarked Grave’; Talburt, Andrew Watson; and Heffernan, ‘Andrew Watson – The Silent Pioneer for Black Footballers’.

57. Identifying the Brazilian-born Mehmet Aurelio (born in 1977) as the first dark–skinned player in the Turkish national team (debut in 2006) is a common inaccuracy.

58. See: Dagtas, ‘Kulübünü soyadı olarak alacak kadar sevenler; Vahap Özaltay’.

59. See: Johnson, ‘The Ascendancy of Blaise Diagne and the Beginning of African Politics in Senegal’.

60. See: Poli, ‘Migrations and Trade of African Football Players’, 396; and Dietschy, ‘French Sport’, 517.

61. Boli, ‘African Sport Personalities and the African Diaspora in Europe’, 19–20.

62. Dubois, Soccer Empire, 32.

63. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 81.

64. Dubois, Soccer Empire, 32.

65. Ibid.

66. Boli, ‘African Sport Personalities and the African Diaspora in Europe’, 20.

67. Dubois, Soccer Empire, 33–38.

68. Interestingly, it is George Berry (b. 1957) who is often mistakenly identified as the first black player representing Wales.

69. Eddie’s father played for the Great Britain national team during the First World War (see: Hern, ‘John Edward Parris – A Black soldier in World War One’).

70. See: Hemmens, ‘Eddie Parris – A Welsh Pioneer’; and Gleave, ‘John Edward (“Eddie”) Parris’.

71. Weeks, ‘Eddie Parris’.

72. Ibid.

73. Tovar, Almanaque do Benfica, 139-150.

74. Espirito Santo held the Portuguese national record in the high jump for 20 years and was national long jump and triple jump champion in 1938.

75. Favre, ‘En équipe de Suisse, la quatrième vague’.

76. An interesting fact is that Bardel has not been widely recognized as the Swiss dark-skinned pioneer. He did not become famous as one and has rarely appeared in historical studies. Moreover, other players have often been presented as the first black footballers in the Swiss national team. One very common mistake is identifying Blaise Nkufo (born in 1975 in Kinshasa) as the first such player. In fact, he was not even the second or third. The second was Philippe Douglas (born in 1969) who debuted in 1989. The third was Badile Lubamba (born in 1976 in Kinshasa), who appeared in the national team in the match against Russia on 2 September 2000. Nkufo came on as a substitute in the very same match.

77. From Nachrichten. ‘Fußball-Legende Heli Köglberger 72-jährig gestorben’.

78. Raack, ‘Bin ich schwarz oder weiß?’.

79. El-Tayeb, ‘Dangerous Liaisons. Race, Nation and German Identity’, 28.

80. See: Hargreaves, The Decolonization of Africa; Birmingham, The Decolonization of Africa; Betts, Decolonization.

81. The club contracted four more Surinamese footballers: Humphrey’s brother Frank Mijnals, Erwin Sparendam, Michel Kruin and Charly Marbach, Collectively known as the ‘five-leaf clover’.

82. The list of Dutch footballers of Surinamese background is quite long and also includes such top famous players as Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Patrick Kluivert. Many authors claim that Surinamese players revolutionized Dutch football (see: Carmichael, ‘How Surinamese migrants revolutionised Dutch football’.)

83. See: Hinds, Black Lions; Rees, The Three Degrees; Matthews, Cyrille Regis MBE; Kavanagh, Different Class.

84. See: Christian, ‘Mixing up the Game’; and Olusoga, Black and British.

85. See: Back, Crabbe and Solomos, The Changing Face of Football; Garland and Rowe, Racism and Anti–Racism in Football; and Burdsey, Race, Ethnicity and Football.

86. Burhan, ‘Viv Anderson – Part of A Long Line of English Black Football Pioneers’.

87. Onuora, Pitch Black, 31-32; Dickinson, ‘If I Walked off’.

88. Onuora, Pitch Black, 32.

89. See: Voakes, ‘Forty Years on – How Viv Anderson Became England’s First Black Player’.

90. See: Wheeler, ‘Racists were Raining Down Fruit’; Anderson, ‘Viv Anderson’; and Wilson, ‘English football will Lose Players and Fans’.

91. Anderson and Guest, First Among Equals.

92. McRea,‘“I Have a Thirst for Knowledge. I Won’t Always Be a Manager”’.

93. Onoura explains this kind of political engagement as follows: ‘[in the 1980s] the issue of political representation of black people as elected officials at local and national level was firmly on the agenda. Black communities had overwhelmingly given their political support to the Labour Party and, across the country, small numbers of black men and women had been elected to public office at local council level’. See: Onoura, Pitch Black, 221; Also see Magee, ‘A Potted History of Tory and Labour Footballers’.

94. For example, Anthony Van Den Borre, Emile and Mbo Mpenza, Romelu and Jordan Lukaku, Vincent Kompany, Christian Benteke or Michy Batshuayi.

95. Tivemo, ‘Fotbollsrasism på tillbakagång’.

96. We would like to thank Víðir Sigurðsson from mbl.is for his help in collecting information about Anthony Karl Gregory.

97. We would like to thank Klaus Egelund from eb.dk and Jesper Engermann from jp.dk for their help in collecting information about Carsten Dethlefsen.

98. From Ertmann, ‘Dengang en bøssevarnoget, man gikpå jagt med’.

99. He spent in Spain over 15 years and played in more than 500 official games. Besides, in 2002, Donato broke a 43-year-old record by becoming the oldest goalscorer in Spanish top flight history. He also held the record for the most matches played in the country’s top level by a player born outside Spain: 466 in 15 seasons.

100. From Torres and Train, ‘Between La Roja and a Hard Place’.

101. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 78-103; and Scott, African Footballers in Sweden.

102. Poli, ‘Football Players’ Migrations in Europe’; Poli, ‘Migrations and Trade of African Football Players’; Poli, ‘Africans’ Status in the European Football Players’ Labour Market’; Poli, ‘African migrants in Asian and European football’; and Poli and Besson, ‘From the South to Europe’.

103. It is also worth noting that Jeff’s brother, Jim Whitley, also played for the Northern Ireland national team.

104. Whitley is also a well-known anti-substance abuse activist. A former alcohol and drug addict, he confessed in a BBC Radio interview: ‘I’d been on humongous benders. It wasn’t just alcohol, it was cocaine and a mixture of other drugs. The cocaine just enabled me to drink more. From being so drunk, to then having some cocaine, and then being able to go another two or three days’ (BBC Radio 2019). Today Whitley works at the Sporting Chance Clinic, where he teaches the danger of addiction to other football players.

105. Evening Chronicle, ‘Raising the Game Against Racists’.

106. Burt, ‘John Carew’.

107. McCluskie, ‘In Conversation with … Thomas Sowunmi. Interview with Thomas Sowunmi’.

108. Madu, ‘Reclaiming the achievements of Fabio Liverani, Italy’s black pioneer’.

109. Thompson, ‘When The Beautiful Game Turns Ugly’.

110. Wilsey, ‘The Italian Exception’.

111. BBC Sport, ‘Racists Target Liverani’.

112. See: Sky Sports, ‘Leyton Orient Boss Fabio Liverani Backs Anti-racism Campaign’.

113. Kobovic, ‘A Place I Will Return To, Any Chance I Get’.

114. We would like to thank Kurt Formosa from Malta Football Association and George Mallia himself for their help in collecting the necessary information.

115. See: Panja, ‘Olisadebe Says Beat Racists to Become Polish Soccer Pioneer’.

116. See: Longman, ‘Poland’s Top Scorer Gets a Cold Welcome’.

117. Kossakowski, Nosal and Woźniak, Politics, Ideology and Football Fandom, 191.

118. McGowan, ‘Olisadebe’.

119. Mason, ‘Emmanuel Olisadebe’.

120. The next Cameroonian-born player, Apoula Edel, was fielded for Armenia the following day. Another dark-skinned footballer, Carl Lombe, played only for U-19 and U-21 teams.

121. See: Rial, ‘Rodar. The circulation of Brazilian football players abroad’; Rial, ‘Circulation, Bubbles, Returns’; Ribeiro and Dimeo, ‘The Experience of Migration for Brazilian Football Players’; and Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball.

122. Poli, Ravenel and Besson, ‘Exporting countries in World Football’.

123. He is also known as Ricardo Santos Lago.

124. Although FIFA loosened the nationality transfer of uncapped players and players with multiple nationalities in 2009, this has not benefited Tiago Silva because he did not hold multiple nationalities when he represented Brazil.

125. Apart from them there were more naturalized Brazilians who played for Azerbaijan in 2007–2011, like Fabio Luís Ramim and Marcos Ferreira Xavier.

126. Weir, ‘Eduardo da Silva and the Broken Dreams of a Spectacular Finisher’.

127. Some of them were: Marcos Senna (Spain), Roger Guerreiro (Poland), Cacau (Germany), Pepe, Deco and Liedson (Portugal), Leandro (Hungary), Mehmet Aurelio (Turkey), Lucio Wagner (Bulgaria), and Amauri (Italy).

128. Besides, Gebre Selassie has a younger sister named Anna, who plays for the Czech Republic women’s national handball team.

129. Guardian, ‘Euro 2012ʹ.

130. Virtanen, ‘Pukukopin ’Veli’ Alho. Interview with Nikolai Alho’.

131. See: FARE Network, ‘Racist abuse in Bratislava Derby’.

132. As a naturalized Ukrainian citizen, during the conflict with Russia in July 2014 Edmar mistakenly received a military draft notice from the Ukrainian army. As explained, the mistake was due to his surname (News.AM, ‘FC Metalist’s Brazilian footballer will not serve in Ukrainian army’).

133. See: AP News, ‘Ukraine Punished for Fan Racism in Lviv’.

134. Oleg Romantsev, Russia national team coach in 1994–1996 and 1998–2002, secured a Russian passport for the Cameroonian defender Jerry Christian Tchuise, a Spartak Moscow player. Tchuise was even called up for a World Cup qualifier in 2001 but was unable to travel because of a stomach ulcer. He was not selected for Russia again.

135. Pivovarov, ‘Экс-звезда сборнойРоссии Павел Погребняк: «Смешнобыло, когда темнокожий футболистиграл за нашунациональную команду»’.

136. There are 16 UEFA members who still have not had a dark-skinned player in the history of their national team: Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Montenegro, Estonia, Gibraltar, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia and Serbia.

137. Bradbury, ‘Institutional Racism, Whiteness and the Under-representation’; Lusted, ‘Playing games with “Race”; Carrington, “Football’s Coming Home” but Whose Home?’; Fletcher and Hylton, Race, Whiteness and Sport; and Doidge, Racism and European Football.

138. Lusted, ‘Playing Games with ‘Race’”; Poli, ‘The Denationalization of Sport’; Burdsey, ‘“If I Ever Play Football, Dad, Can I Play for England or India?”’; Ortega, ‘Soccer, Nationalism and the Media in Contemporary Spanish Society’; and Ferriter, ‘The Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity in Sport’, 23.

139. Gibbons, ‘English National Identity and the National Football Team’; Murray and Hassan, ‘“They’re Just not My Team’”; Hassan, ‘A People Apart’; Whigham, ‘“Anyone but England?”’; and Maguire, ‘Globalization, Sport and National Identities’.

140. Poli, ‘The denationalization of Sport’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Poland.