[rottenapple]

(06-20-2016 01:46 AM)britchard Wrote:  

(06-19-2016 02:56 PM)Teutatis Wrote:  

On a different note, nice to see that a bit more than 40% of the French team is actually european, usually it's a lot less

(06-19-2016 03:39 PM)Enoch Wrote:  

Sometimes it's 3/11 on the pitch.

Interestingly, I recently watched an u21 game between France and England. In the English team, 6/11 of the starting XI were white, and 6/7 players on the bench were white. This is kind of similar to the mens team.

For France, 2/11 of the starting XI were white (and one was the keeper). And on the bench 2/7 were white.

At younger age groups black players dominate in England. My theory is that they develop physically earlier, so are better than their white counterparts at a younger age.

It has more reasons than that. What you say is true, but I think a bigger factor is that basically the street squares and parks where people develop superior technique are immigrant dominated. For instance a Moroccan immigrant son who likes football (they pretty much all do) will be out all night after school playing football on the street, a French kid will be much more likely to be playing on his computer inside. Interestingly in Belgium for instance at young age almost all the best players I knew growing up (I played decent level) were Moroccan or black, however in the first division there are almost no Moroccan players. Due to mentality/cultural problems/tactical discipline many talented players don't reach the final stage. But you can ask any guy who the best players are on the street and they will say they are Moroccan. Some of those talents still get through and then they can go very far, fi Fellaini, Chadli, Carcela, ... The ones that really seem to use physical advantage are the Congolese/Nigerian players. Lukaku at 14 was already a physical beast and got picked up by the biggest club in the country, Benteke the same. The Nigerians the same but more based on speed.