Migration is a polarizing issue and a large aspect of everyday life. Never has it been so prevalent in sports than in this year’s 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. While it has become a topic during this tournament’s coverage, it has always been a part of the sport and the World Cup altogether.
For more than half of the 32 teams in Qatar, some if not most of their squads are made up of foreign-born individuals who were either born to immigrant parents in the countries they play for, or immigrated to the nation they represent as a young child with their parents.
This is true for even the host nation Qatar, as well as the Netherlands, England, USA, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Switzerland, Portugal, and pretty much every other nation in the tournament. Only four nations do not have any foreign born players—Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.
Countries like those listed, are now benefiting from the talent that originated in Africa, for example. Since the beginning of major club soccer, it has become a trend for many European and other major clubs alike to send scouts to African, and Arab nations to search for talent.
As a result, we are starting to see the effects of that.
The 2022 tournament is the sixth consecutive World Cup where the number of foreign-born players has increased. This shows that there is always migration happening across the globe in addition to many national teams now looking for top players outside their countries. As a result of many new FIFA rules, these players sometimes have two or even three choices when it comes to repping a national team.
According to a Vox analysis, in 1930 — the first World Cup — roughly 5% of the participants were foreign-born. Less than a hundred years later, by the 2018 tournament in Russia, 11.2% of the players were foreign-born — more than doubling the percentage.
At this year’s World Cup, it has increased to 16.5%, or around one in every six were born in a country they are not representing — the highest share in the tournament’s history. And with how the world is currently shaping up, that number will only increase in future tournaments.
137 of the 830 players from the total 32 teams are playing for countries that are not their birthplaces. It has already created some huge memorable World Cup moments, such as the one created by Madrid-born and current PSG player Achraf Hakimi — who just recently scored the winning penalty to eliminate Spain and send Morocco to the quarter-finals for the country’s first time . He was born to Moroccan parents. Swiss forward Breel Embolo — originally from Cameroon — also scored a goal against his birth country to send Switzerland to the Round of 16.
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