| The growing talent of African footballers |
 Jacko writes: The Premiership is one of the top domestic leagues in the world, one where every footballer wants to play at some point in their career. Since the Premiership began in 1991 the league has been blessed with great British players like Shearer and Fowler, then the European flair of Cantona and Klinsmann but now theirs a whole new breed of player making their mark in the Premiership, players from Africa.
World Cup, Japan and Korea 2002 gave the world an insight into the quality of the African nations and in particular, Senegal. Little did anyone know that Senegal would be the catalyst for an influx of African players entering the Premiership. Yet their victory against the World Cup holders France in the opening game would be the turning point in African football. Their victory was reminiscent of David and Goliath. From this game the rest of Africa took inspiration from Senegal’s performance and courage.
After the 2002 World Cup no fewer than seven of Senegal’s squad made the switch to the Premiership. This included Aliou Cisse (former Birmingham City), Khalilou Fadiga (former Bolton Wanderers) and Salif Diao (former Liverpool, Birmingham City and Portsmouth), while many Senegalese players are still plying their trade in the Premiership such as, Papa Bouba Diop (Fulham), Amdy Faye (Charlton Athletic), Henri Camara (Wigan Athletic) and El Hadji Diouf (Bolton Wanderers).Senegal had set a benchmark, one for the other African nations to follow and which they duly obliged to.
The Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt 2006 offered more raw talent for the Premiership scouts to feast their eyes on. Their is no question that when World Cup 2006 came around then African minnows Ghana, Togo, Angola and Ivory Coast wanted to impress like the this time absent, Senegal did in 2002.The foundation for many of the African players is the La Championnat, the top flight league in France. A host of African players are based in France; this is mainly due their countries formally being part of the French colony. After the 2002 World Cup the amount of African players in the Premiership was phenomenal. Many managers and scouts from the Premiership scour the French league, but no more so than Arsene Wenger. The French manager has an uncanny eye for young talent and their squad contains five African players who have previously played for French clubs; Armand Traore, Gael Clichy, Abou Diaby, Alexandre Song and Emmanuel Adebayor were all acquired either on a bosman transfer or a low transfer fee. Their are now many established African players in the Premiership who have come easily accustomed to the style of play. The natural ability of the African’s particularly suits them to the Premiership. Serie A-Italy and La Liga-Spain however contain very few African players; this is either due to the style of play not suiting their attributes or the amount of racism within these countries.The African players settle in particularly well into the Premiership, whereas many European imports often fail to impress or don’t reach their potential due to the style and culture of play. It has to be said that the Africans are consistent performer’s week in week out, take the much traveled Henri Camara for example who has been at a host of Premiership clubs and has delivered the goods on a regular basis.
In general African players are usually available at a cheaper price from French clubs in comparison to many European based players. However televised events such as the Uefa Champions League and the World Cup can often increase a player’s valuation. A prime example is Chelsea who captured Didier Drogba, from Marseille, in 2004 for twenty-four million pounds and Michael Essien, in 2005 for twenty-four and half million pounds from French champions Lyon. The substantial transfer fee’s were due to Drogba having an
impressive Champions League and Uefa Cup goal-scoring run in 2004 and Essien for
being one of the players of the Champions League in 2004/2005, ultimately leading Lyon to the last eight.
It is apparent that the standard of the African nations are continuously improving every year and it is no surprise that this probably due to many of them playing in the Premiership.
With the benchmark now rising, an African nation may well claim the World Cup in 2010, in their homeland, South Africa.
|
 Posted by: 1football on Monday, February 05 @ 02:34:21 EST
|
|
|
| |
| Login
|
| Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name. |
|
|
