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Foreign Legions
When it comes to selecting for national success, picking naturalized players knows no borders.Ozren Podnar reports...
In an age when it is run of the mill for football clubs to field foreign players, clubs like Athletic Bilbao from the Spanish Basque country and Hrvatski Dragovoljac (Croatian Volunteer) in Croatia are now looking anachronistic in their insistence on fielding only local players. However, it still seems surprising that national teams view the guidelines for eligibility as flexible and include players that perhaps only can only be described as nationals in a very loose sense. But this is far from being a recent trend and indeed the practice has a long history. The pre-war German team absorbed the best Austrian players after Anschluss and also forced the Pole Ernst Wilimowski into its ranks during the occupation of Poland. In preparation for the 1934 World Cup, Italy naturalized several extraordinary "oriundi", South Americans of Italian stock. Thus Orsi, Monti, Demaria and Guaita played for the "azzurri" and won the world title against Czechoslovakia.
Political turmoil played the chief role in players' movements between borders during the fifties. Ferenc Puskas became a Spaniard after the bloody Soviet intervention in Hungary 1956, and Franco's Spain also gave passports to the Hungarian Ladislav Kubala, ethnically Slovakian, and the Argentinian national Alfredo Di Stefano who was of Italian descent. After Omar Sivori, another "oriundo" swapped his Argentina jersey for an Italy shirt during the sixties, FIFA banned transfers between national teams but allowed immigrants and their children to play for their new country provided they obtained citizenship. In any case, FIFA requires some kind of connection between the player and the country to accept naturalization for soccer purposes. Such a connection did not exist in the case of Ailton Goncalves and Qatar and the Brazilian striker (now at Schalke 04) was prevented from representing the Gulf State. Some national teams have been far from reserved in welcoming foreign born players into their ranks. Belgium adopted and adored the Croatian Josip Weber in the first half of the nineties and, more recently, his fellow countryman Branko Strupar - both were naturalized specifically for inclusion in the national team. Over the last six years Austria has created a little Croatian legion of four, Ivica Vastic being the best of them, and indeed the top Austrian player for several years. Germany have looked much further afield to fill the attacking void created by the retirements of Klinsmann, Bierhoff and Kirsten. The list includes the Bobic (Slovenia), Rink (Brazil), Dundee (South Africa), Neuville (French Swiss), Asamoah (Ghana), Kurany (Hungary/Brazil) and the Klose and Podolski (both Polish). The Poland national team has responded by including the Nigerian Emanuel Olisadebe. Sweden have included a number of players from South Eastern Europe, most prominently Zlatan Ibrahimovic. However, this is a true reflection of a change in the composition of the population brought about by the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. One must also remember that the option of including foreign-born players is far easier to take for countries that were once colonial powers. Since the early nineties, the Dutch have been calling on a number of talented players of Surinamese descent which is in stark contrast with the white-only policy that prevailed during the seventies. And can anyone imagine "Les Bleus" being so successful without African players like Zidane (Algeria), Vieira (Senegal) or Desailly (Ghana), American reinforcements like Thuram and Henry (Guadalupe) or Oceanian imports like Karembeu (New Caledonia)? Not forgetting, of course, the Armenian, Portuguese and Argentinian contingent. In reality it was a World XI (or rather, a World XXII) that brought the World Cup and European Championships trophy home - to France.
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Croatian Soccer
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