After the recent failure of the England under-21 national football side many pundits have offered their views on the failings of the team. This article will seek to address an issue I heard discussed upon the transfer of Michael Mancienne to Hamburg from Chelsea. During his interview Mancienne was asked why he thought only a handful of English players have decided to play abroad to which he responded ‘To be honest, I don’t know. I saw it as a massive opportunity to go abroad and to play in the German league, so I’m really excited by it.’
I am sat firmly on the fence. It can be a big step for a young player to move abroad. Couple this with the failings of Jonathan Woodgate, Des Walker and Mark Hughes. Players do not want risk their future and move into a country where football is played differently with more emphasis on the technical side of the game. At this point the reader can surely feel for foreign players who move to the Premier League and do not hit the ground running and are widely regarded to be a bad player. I have been sat in the stands myself and heard fans calling for the head of an Argentinian striker who had been brave enough to take a step into the unknown and try to build a career in Enlgand.
The technical ability developed in foreign players is far superior to that of players developed in the United Kingdom and it could very well benefit our national side greatly if more players would take the plunge and make what could be the best decision of their career and follow Chris Waddle, Kevin Keegan and Paul Lambert in having success in a different league. Having experience playing against different teams and players will allow players to develop their games and learn from other star performers who do not ply their trade in the English league.
In the interest of balance I propose to assess the teams of the countries who have reached the pinnacle of world football by winning the world cup over the prior 4 tournaments.
The world cup winning France national team in 1998, including the substitutes who made it onto the field of play, comprised of only 3 players who played in the French League (Fabien Barthez – AS Monaco, Stephane Guivarc’h – AJ Auxerre and Christophe Dugarry.) Similarly, the Brazil national team who lifted the FIFA World Cup Trophy contained 4 players who played their club football in Brazil. (Marcos – Palmeiras, Gilberto Silva – Atletico Mineiro, Kleberson – Atletico Paranaense and Juninho Paulista – Vasco Da Gama.)
In total contrast to the world cup finals previously, the Italian side which were crowned world cup champions in 2002 not only contained no foreign based players in the starting 11 but the entire squad all played in their homeland. This trend continued with only 2 players from outside the Spanish league involved in the world cup final in 2010(Fernando Torres – Liverpool and Cesc Fabregas – Arsenal) where Spain overcame Holland.
So what does this tell us? In a nutshell, not very much. It seems to matter very little whether the player plays in his home country or has experience playing abroad. Furthermore, this information may be disregarded because of the level and status of the leagues in question with the Italian and Spanish leagues having better reputations as competitive leagues than Brazil and France. However, if the competitiveness of the league which they played is a factor, surely the English team should have fared much better?
This evidence seems to suggest that another factor can be blamed for the failings of our national side. Perhaps, it could be the fact that our better young players are not getting game time at their respective clubs. But then this notion can be discounted with Capello adopting a strict approach upon selection with players who are playing regularly being picked for his squads.
The only outcome I can agree with is that our players are overhyped and technically only average. Although our league may be the best on the planet it contains more and more foreign players which add technical qualities to the Premier League which blend perfectly with the attributes of our home grown players. Further in conclusion, foreign players must be applauded for having the bottle to move abroad and attempt to gain a reputation in the English League with the gamble paying off in most cases.
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