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I thought same thing he has potential to be another KPB, sometimes things just don't work out and good players do leave, he has to live with fact Poch got Dembele sorted and found Dier a perfect position in one swoop so he wasn't going to play
Hope he does well, I doubt he will want to come back fight for his place so let's get a good fee, will make his agent happy too, as that's what the game is about in 2016
I think it's very common for French players of African descent to feel more connected to their African country than France. BAE did an interview a while back where he talked about how strange it was to him that players like Lennon considered themselves only English.
EDIT:
"Me playing for Cameroon was a natural and normal thing. I have no feeling for the France national team; it just doesn't exist. When people ask of my generation in France, 'Where are you from?', they will reply Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon or wherever. But what has amazed me in England is that when I ask the same question of people like Lennon and Defoe, they'll say: 'I'm English.' That's one of the things that I love about life here."
Benoît Assou-Ekotto: 'I play for the money. Football's not my passion'
:vertna:
What a tit.
What does he expect Lennon to say? "Half Jamaican, half Irish Benny"....:lennon:
"What about you Jermaine?".... "umm, St Lucian mate":defoe:
To me, it comes across a bit racist to assume a fella isn't English just because he's not white...
Thing about England is that none of us are really English if you go by them rules - we're all a bunch of Mongrels. Even the royals are a mix of Germans and Greeks.
Might seem odd to the French, as they import their population but are too passive with their culture (typical of their behaviour in both world wars).
But why wouldn't they? Because they didn't look Caucasian?
That's just how it comes across, is all, which makes for part of the problem with modern society. Then again, he was involved in the quenelle uproar.
I think most of West Europe had some bad ass Canadians to thank for WW1 though
Actually, the French are very strong on defence of French culture, to an almost ridiculous degree. For example, they have a group called the academie franchise (40 people, known as the immortals. All academics, all hold the position for life,although they can be removed for gross misconduc, and can resign.in that case, the remaining members vote the replacement) whose job it it to effectively defend the purity of the French language,. In order to prevent loan words such as 'email' from anglicising the language, they coin new French words(courriel). They are also behind the recent attempts to prevent constitutional protection for regional languages and dialects such as Breton or Occitan.
I'm still holding out hope that he'll find his feet in the Bundesliga and turn into the player that a lot of us thought he could become last season. Although even if he does, there's probably so much bad blood between him and Poch that it would just mean that he'd get sold for a big fee to some other club.... 
There's just a different mentality in countries where nationality is traditionally ethnicity-based. Like I grew up in the USA and everyone here accepts me as American despite not being white, but if I grew up in Japan or China, I would always be considered a foreigner and so would my children and grandchildren.
There's just a different mentality in countries where nationality is traditionally ethnicity-based. Like I grew up in the USA and everyone here accepts me as American despite not being white, but if I grew up in Japan or China, I would always be considered a foreigner and so would my children and grandchildren.
Gaijin...
In seriousness though, I get what you mean, but it's a ridiculous way of thinking for a modern society.
Great post.
People have to remember that the nation-state is, for the most part, a Western political construct. Many people throughout the world identify with their ethnicity or religion or local community rather than their country to which they feel no real affinity.
Take much of the Middle East and North Africa for example. Most of those countries are countries because their borders were arbitrarily drawn on a map about a hundred years ago by European imperialists, and then distributed to the control of people or groups that helped them. No consideration was given to how people preferred to identify themselves and to what group the felt closest, they were designated to the country where they were geographically located.
It shouldn't be a surprise that people who have recent ancestors from these parts of the world identify more closely with their family and as a result their families nationality, rather than the one into which they were born. It can also depend on the circumstances under which a persons parents or grandparents moved to their country of birth. If it was a less than voluntary decision then there may be residual resentment that they were forced to move from their family home. I have no idea if this is the case with Bentaleb, but it is for many people.
I guess the point is that identity and how people identify themselves is a fucking complex process and subject to many different factors.
Exactly. Or a bit of French, German, or anyone else who decided to dip their wick at some point.
Much of the non-Caucasian genes in British society can be tracked back hundreds of years. I don't think enough people realise that there were black slavers too, and it wasn't like the UK was 100% white until someone left a gate open.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say to a white bloke "No, I mean where are you really from?"
Dont forget that for some players there also is an opportunistic factor, we've never had this much Belgian players with a mixed heritage choosing to play for Belgium as we have now. The fact that we are doing so well plays a huge part in that, and i understand. Some players however choose the country of their ancestors because there's a lot of pressure from the parents, they might feel like Belgians because they are second or third generation but their parents still have a strong link with their homecountry and want their children to preserve that link.
Watched a documentary on Chadli a while back and him telling his dad that he wants to play for Belgium was quite confronting really as his dad practically called him a traitor. Chadli's life story is amazing btw, a fantastic example of modern integration.
What i've seen is that in the UK is that 2nd and 3th generation immigrants tend to see themselves as british/english, that is something to rejoice. In the rest of Western Europe they are more often divided between their different backgrounds and as such belong nowhere. I have lots of Arab/Persian/Turkish friends and they all seem to struggle with that, whereas my black friends have stronger links with Belgium then their home countries.
Watched a documentary on Chadli a while back and him telling his dad that he wants to play for Belgium was quite confronting really as his dad practically called him a traitor. Chadli's life story is amazing btw, a fantastic example of modern integration.
What i've seen is that in the UK is that 2nd and 3th generation immigrants tend to see themselves as british/english, that is something to rejoice. In the rest of Western Europe they are more often divided between their different backgrounds and as such belong nowhere. I have lots of Arab/Persian/Turkish friends and they all seem to struggle with that, whereas my black friends have stronger links with Belgium then their home countries.
But
FokkenPrawn
what you dont like about Bentaleb happens all the time in the UK, English people with a great great grandma that was Irish go play for Ireland, half of the Welsh team is probably not even born in Wales and so on. Does that bother you equally ?
FokkenPrawn
what you dont like about Bentaleb happens all the time in the UK, English people with a great great grandma that was Irish go play for Ireland, half of the Welsh team is probably not even born in Wales and so on. Does that bother you equally ?
Nah, we're all descended from test tube babies, placed on the earth by our lizard overlords.