Black & Immigrant Players Around the Globe

The overarching theme of the readings is bringing to light some high flying names of great black players throughout different eras, as well as documenting the struggles these same players have had to face for the color of their skin. This includes barring from playing for national teams as well as ridicule from the media for not “truly representing” their national team.

One of the players highlighted through the readings if Brazilian player Manuel Francisco dos Santos, or Garrincha. Born with deformed legs that had his knees bend at awkward angles, this gave him a unique advantage to the dribbling aspect of soccer mostly. This skillset let him be one of the most important pieces of the 1958 and 1962 World Cup victories for Brazil, along with his teammate Pele.

While discrimination against Garrincha specifically was not a focal point of the readings, the main talking points were the French national teams of the 1930s, and the German national team of 2014. Larbi Benbarek was mentioned by name as playing for the French national team even though born in the French territory at the time, Morocco, and not possessing a French passport. The German national team had possessed German citizen players who were born to immigrant parents, highlighting Mesut Ozil (Turkish) Jerome Boateng (Ghanaian) and Sami Khedira (Tunisian.) These players were sought after by name in the media as being “undesirable neighbors” and not correctly representing the German people.