With the World Cup coming up

Here at the website we thought you may want to get in the international mood and enjoy a piece of writing from Jon Grant that looks at players that have played for more than one country.

(An abridged version of this article has earlier appeared in a recent Chesterfield FC matchday programme)

Football Matters - National Identity - by Jon Grant

Professional footballers come from all walks of life and originate from many different backgrounds and family heritages. In sport one the finest achievements possible is to represent your country but some people are eligible to represent two or more.

There are many examples of players representing one country when they could have played for another, including some of the world's best. Ryan Wilson (now Giggs) played for England schoolboys (against Germany) before committing himself as a full Wales international at only 17 years of age and Arsenal's outstanding Brazilian born midfielder Eduardo plays for Croatia. On becoming the Republic of Ireland's manager in 1986, England's world cup winner Jack Charlton's first task was to ascertain which football league players were eligible to play for Ireland. This led to a number of "Englishmen" with Irish ancestry playing for a very successful Republic team including our own Lancashire born John Sheridan. In the 1994 World Cup finals John was partnered in midfield by passionate Irishman Roy Keane, Kent's Andy Townsend and Glaswegian Ray Houghton. At the heart of Ireland's defence for many years was Barnsley's Mick McCarthy and up front was Kent born Tony Cascarino who it later transpired has no Irish blood link whatsoever. In his autobiography Tony revealed that his English mother had been adopted by his Irish grandfather and that he had been ineligible to play for Ireland, a fact that did not prevent him from representing his adopted country 88 times. Other members of Ireland's World Cup squads of 1990 and 1994 included: Paul McGrath, David O'Leary, Chris Hughton, Phil Babb, and Eddie McGoldrick (all born in London), Liverpool born Jason McAteer and John Aldridge, Manchester's Terry Phelan, Birmingham's David Kelly, Cornwall's Chris Morris and Welch born Kevin Sheedy.

Further evidence that people from very different backgrounds can achieve great success can not only be found in many club teams but also from the superb World Cup winning France team of 1998. Man of the final Zenedine Zidane came from a footballing family, his Uncle Djamel Zidane played in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals - for Algeria. Zenedine's Algerian parents moved to France before his was born (in Marsaille) so he could have represented either country; fortunately for France it was they who gave him his first international opportunity. Similar circumstances surround Thierry Henry whose parents originated from Guadeloupe (dad) and Martinique (mum). However, Patric Vierra (Senegal), Marcel Desailly (Ghana), and Lillian Thuram (Guadaloupe) were all born in other countries before moving to France as children with their families. These players complemented each other brilliantly to lift France up to become one of the best teams in the World in the late 1990's and early 2000's, winning the World Cup in 1998 and Euro 2000 Tournament two years later. They did much to lift French national pride. From 2003 Desailly held the record for the number of French appearances (116) until it was broken by teammate and fellow defender Thuram (142) in 2006.  

The legendary  Ferenc Puskas

If we look back a little further amazingly two of the world's greatest footballers of all time actually played for more than one Country. After the Second World War Hungarian Ferenc Puskas drew the attention of the whole football world and is now regarded in the same category as greats such as Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, di Stefano, Platini, Bobby Charlton, Best, Eusebio and Zidane. As captain Puskas was at the heart of the legendary Hungarian team known as the Mighty Magyars that stunned England 6 - 3 at Wembley in 1953 before thrashing us 7-1 in the return 1954 Budapest fixture (England's heaviest defeat). In the 1954 World Cup finals he missed much of the tournament through injury but returned in the final where Hungary's winning run controversially ended after his late equalising "goal" was ruled offside. After the Hungarian revolution in 1956 he defected to Spain to play for Real Madrid in what was possibly the best club side ever. His playing record speaks for itself; he scored 84 international goals in 85 Hungarian appearances and 514 goals from 529 Hungarian and Spanish league appearances. In 1961 he made his debut for Spain and represented them a further 3 times in the 1962 World Cup finals. 

Alfredo di Stefano in full techno colour

For much of his Real Madrid career one of Puskas team mates was Alfredo di Stefano. Between them they terrorised opposition defences and in the late 1950's and early 1960's Real dominated all competitions. These two greats helped Real Madrid to win La Liga and the European Cup five times in a row. At their best they were unbeatable and in the 1960 European Cup final at Hampden Park Puskas scored 4 goals and di Stefano 3 to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7 - 3 in what is generally regarded as the best final ever. Born in Buenos Aires di Stefano made his Argentinian debut in 1947 but after 6 appearances and 6 goals he moved on to play in Bogota in 1949 due to a footballers strike in his home country, which led to him making 4 international appearances for Columbia. He controversially moved to Real Madrid in 1953 where he remained until 1964 before ending his playing career with Espanyol in 1966. He made his third international debut, this time for Spain, in 1954 and continued to play for them until his international retirement in 1961. In total di Stefano scored 374 goals in 521 club appearances, mostly for Real Madrid (216/282) and 29 international goals from 41 appearances. Puskas and di Stefano probably formed the most feared strike partnership ever and did wonders for Spanish football despite that fact that neither were born in Spain.

On thing is for sure in South Africa this summer, whoever scores the winning goal in the World Cup final will become a national hero for their Country - whatever their background.