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ABSTRACT
As Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) plans to host the Euro Cup 2020 (now deferred to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) in 12 cities of 12 countries around Europe, one feature that will stand out is the conspicuous presence of players of African descent. As UEFA celebrates the 60th anniversary of the tournament, it is worthwhile to reflect over the composition of the European national football teams in the twenty-first century and specifically analyse the history and dynamics that this opportunity presents to the players of African descent and the resultant national identity implications. Going by the composition of European teams at the 2018 World Cup, the presence of African players is a growing phenomenon. Initially, such phenomenon was confined to once colonizing and colonized nations such as Portugal and Mozambique; France and Morocco, Senegal and Algeria, among others. However, recent developments show that players of African descent are turning out for countries that had no colonial links.
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Notes
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18. Heere et al., ‘The Power of Sport to Unite a Nation’.
19. Tajfel, Human groups and social categories, 255.
20. Sellers, ‘The Role of Racial Identity and Racial Discrimination’.
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22. Ashmore et al., ‘An Organizing Framework for Collective Identity’.
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24. Ashmore et al., ‘An Organizing Framework for Collective Identity’.
25. Deaux, ‘Becoming American’. Also see Eccles and Barber, ‘Student Council, Volunteering, Basketball, or Marching band’; and Heere et al., ‘The Power of Sport to Unite a Nation’.
26. Sen, Identity and Violence, 26.
27. Billig, Banal Nationalism.
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29. Dimmock, Grove and Eklund, ‘Reconceptualizing Team Identification’; and Heere and James, ‘Sports Teams and Their Communities’.
30. Robinson, ‘Tackling the Anxieties of the English’.
31. Abell et al., ‘Who Ate All the Pride?’.
32. Maguire and Poulton, ‘European Identity Politics in Euro 96ʹ.
33. Levermore and Millward, ‘Official Policies and Informal Transversal Networks’.
34. Ibid.
35. Maguire, Global Sport.
36. King, The European Ritual.
37. Holmes and Storey, ‘Who are the Boys in Green?’.
38. Gibbons, ‘‘Contrasting Representations of Englishness’.
39. Millward, ‘True Cosmopolitanism or Notional Acceptance’.
40. Meier and Leinwather, ‘Finally a “Taste for Diversity”?’
41. Ibid.
42. van Sterkenburg, ‘National Bonding and Meanings’.
43. Ibid.
44. Van Hilvoorde, ‘How to Influence National Pride?’.
45. van Sterkenburg, ‘National Bonding and Meanings’.
46. Ward, ‘Sport and National Identity’.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Ward, ‘Sport and National Identity’.
52. Ibid, 519.
53. van Sterkenburg, ‘National Bonding and Meanings’.
54. Fuller, ‘European Soccer has a Conspicuous Racism Problem’.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. van Sterkenburg, ‘National Bonding and Meanings’. Also see Kuper, Football Against the Enemy.
62. Saboand Jansen, ‘Constructions of Masculinity in Sports Media’.
63. ABN, Soccernomics: Soccer and the World Economy 2006.
64. Gilroy, ‘Multiculture in Times of War’.
65. Buffington and Fraley, ‘Skill in Black and White’.
66. McCarthy, ‘Constructing Images and Interpreting Realities’.
67. Hermes, ‘Burnt Orange’.
68. Meier and Leinwather, ‘Finally a ‘Taste for Diversity?’. Also see Gibbons, ‘Contrasting Representations of Englishness’; and Pettigrew, ‘New Minorities of Western Europe’.
69. Alegi, African Soccerscapes.
70. World Bank, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2019/04/08/record-high-remittances-sent-globally-in-2018.
71. Alegi, African Soccerscapes.
73. Alegi, African Soccerscapes; and Darby, Africa, Football and FIFA.
74. Alegi, African Soccerscapes.
75. Ibid.
76. Darby, Africa, Football and FIFA.
77. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 81.
78. Alegi, Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 82.
79. Ibid.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Ibid.
83. Ibid.; and Darby, ‘Out of Africa’.
84. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 81.
85. Ibid., 88.
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid.
88. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 89–93.
89. Ibid.
90. Ibid, 92.
91. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 92. Also see Gibbons, ‘Fan Debates on English National Identity’.
92. Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 93.
93. Ibid.
94. Dubois, ‘Afro‑Europe in the World Cup’, Online at https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2018/afro-europe-in-the-world-cup/on March 5, 2020.
95. Njororai, ‘Colonial Legacy’.
96. Darby, ‘African Football Labour Migration to Portugal’.
97. Ibid.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
101. Mahjoub, ‘Ydnekatchew Tessema’.
102. https://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2018/07/09/world-cup-2018-europes-national-teams-by-racial-ancestry/.
103. Schimdt, ‘French National Soccer’.
104. Ibid.
105. Baxter, ‘Romelu Lukaku Finds’.
106. Ibid.