*Football" here means what the United States calles "soccer".
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases the Feb. 2021 YouTube video entitled "Why West Africa Produces So Much Talent! | Explained".
This post also presents selected comments from that video's discussion thread. In addition to responding to the question that is posed in the video's title, a number of commenters discussed what they consider to be the problems with football (soccer) and other sports regarding West Africans and other Africans. including how and why so many Africans play on European teams instead of their home country's teams.
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are associated with this video and who are featured in this video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSovh7tolXs&ab_channel=EuroFootballDaily
All of these comments are from 2021. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only
1. DaKid Biscuit
"They would have alot more talent if English, French nd German players had any national pride and join their parent's home countries"
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Reply
2. ZizouShifty
"Exactly, why go play for the countries that colonized and oppressed your people?"
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3. Ife A
" @ZizouShifty Several reasons to be honest:
1. A lot of them were born and raised there so they feel more of a connection to those countries than their countries of origin.
2. Those national teams have better facilities and (except for England) have a higher chance of winning trophies than their home countries.
3. European national teams actually care for their veterans. They pay them better than African teams on average (who sometimes don’t even pay their players at all) and give them benefits after they retire if they’ve made a certain amount of appearances. Meanwhile some legends from the 1994 Super Eagles team are languishing in poverty and nobody in the football federation cares.
So yeah I wouldn’t blame any player for picking those countries. Can’t lie though I was really hurt when Saka snubbed us on Independence Day. :("
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Reply
4. Gabriel Chalesle
"Most of the players for example the French National team have African descent but were born and raised in France, they chose their birth nation and I don’t know why that’s a problem."
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5. The Monobrow
"They only ever got that good in the first place by coming through European academies."
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6. Cesar
"Being Natural born athletes definitely helps."
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7. Gohlah Kamara
"Because we chop fufu. That is where the talent comes from."
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8. Alidor davi
"Most of west african country dont have wars that is why."
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9. JDVRadio
"When you mentioned colonial legacy i thought you would mention how Southern African countries also play British sports like cricket and rugby as well, whereas the west had a mainly football related culture
10. Fernando Torres
"The lost boys by Ed Hawkins is a fantastic read on this subject."
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11. Wayne
"compare the population of west Africa to the rest of Africa,
its not rocket science, just numbers game"
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12. Senate Shakya
"Majority of the French national teams hails from Africa."
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13. Gabriel Chalesle
"African descent yes but most were born in France."
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14. Suryo Ardi
"fun fact, it because most African country use to
under France colonialist goverment, many African country speak France.. because
of that African football player is not find difficult thing when he play with
France"
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15. Igwe productions
"There was more African players than actual french players in the the
2018 World Cup winning team"
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16. Liven Bose
"France is the new Africa."
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17. Biobele
"Nigeria exports more footballers than every other nation on
earth except Brazil, Argentina and very few others."
Reply
18. theblonde ichiban
"@Biobele I'm from Nigeria and I can confirm that we
basically breathe football my driver played professional football. However most
of the time to make it to a big European league you need money and connections"
Reply
19. Roman Shocker
"
Reply
20. Biobele
"But Nigeria is West Africa and not colonised by French but Britain so you analogy of why east Africa isn't so successful due to Britain is B.S
I think it's down to talent, interest and genetics."
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21. Rajikage
"He missed the part where most Nigerian and Ghanaians don’t shine as much as Francophones because England snaps them up almost immediately and now Germany nowadays"
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22. coul j
"As an Ivoirian I can tell you that I would love to have Serge Gnabry playing for the Elephants , instead of Germany!"
23. FUNKTUBE GH
"It is sad to see as a Ghanaian how our league is deteriorating most of the players have one hood season and they or gone either to Belgium 9r one those not so well known leagues 😭😭"
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Reply
24. Παναγιώτης Γεωργίου
"Ghana is no more Ghana 😢"
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25. Jerry
"Because theres more money invested in
football in those countries"
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26. Kip Smithers
"There’s also money invested in countries
like Egypt, they aren’t known to produce the levels and abundance of talent
levels likr West African nations"
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Reply
27. sami bara
"@Kip Smithers
doesnt matter when 3 of the best countries and most succesful in
football are all north africans
1. egypt
2. morocco
3. algeria
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28. Honest pendu fan
"algeria has the best talent out of any african country"
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Reply
29. Fegis Mcclaren
"@Honest pendu fan Historically I agree but honestly right now Senegal is in a golden generation of talent"
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30. Chelskönner UCLwinners
"@Honest pendu fan Nigeria was once one of the best countries in the world in terms of football talent, but it seemed to have dropped massively recently."
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31. Jude Ake
"@Fegis Mcclaren nah, the North African players are overtaking right now, they play like Brazilians"
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Reply
32. John-Adrian Coker
"@Honest pendu fan @El compa AMLO True but the reality & problem is that the majority of that talent tends to choose to play for an adopted country for a better chance at winning honours such as the World Cup.
The sooner the infrastructure in Africa develops level footing with Europe, the better. Then they will choose Africa & we'll live to see an African nation lift the World Cup!
That starts with putting the money back into the continent, not into people's pockets & European teams organising preseason friendlies & tournaments in Africa."
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33. Sekou Kante
"No the problem is they all decide to play for France"
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34. It Be Like That
"And it’s our own people doing the corruption. 🙆🏾♂"
*️*
35. Indica Badu
"I'm from west africa, Nigeria in particular. I've traveled around west africa and there's is much more talented footballers here, there are many rising footballers that will never make it to the big stage because of the wide spread corruption in the footballing system. With lots of agent asking for bribes and high fees which are impossible to get just for a player to get a shot at trial at an established footballing organization. Also the medical assistant provided for these young players are awful. I was a FIfa registered player when I was 17 but I had series of injuries in which my mother had to shell out of her own expense to get me patched up, after a while she advised me to quit and I don't say I regret the decision.
Many many extremely talented young players has been lost to silly tiny injuries and agent atrocious bribe request. I now live in Europe and I have seen more talents on the street of west africa than every where I've been in Europe.
Guess you can only dream as much as you can reach in Africa."
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36. Faromoju Tobi
"I've lived in Lagos all my life and I had never known the meaning of Ajegunle. All I had known was that life there is really hard"
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37. SEUN A
"It means you only have a Yoruba name but you don't understand the language. Aje means wealth/riches. In Yoruba religion, Aje is the goddess of wealth. Gunle means arrive/reside."
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38. FraudTube
"Brilliant video. I loved how you touched on the ways some players are exploited by agents in pursuit of moves to Europe."
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39. Joseph Harlem
"That's a pretty convincing explanation that the French policy of assimilation vs British protectionism allowed former west african colonies to get into better paid and better run European football but how do you explain Nigeria and Ghana am curious. Btw I am Ugandan and I know the talent in East Africa is just as good if not better."
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40.Eduardo_ da_silvar
"The main thing why African Football in general isn't doing well as a whole is that:
& 4) Blocking of young visionary individuals (whom have studies in various sporting fields) from coming in to make/usher the necessary changes to improve the continents sporting culture as a whole by the old, corrupt n outdated individuals in the "seats of power" who promote nepotism & tribalism in sports
PRAY, PUSH & ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE IN AFRICA EVERYONE...WE AS A PEOPLE FROM THE CONTINENT NEED ALL THE VOICES CALLING FOR THE OLD GUARD TO STEP DOWN & ACCEPT CHANGE.
Reply
41. sami bara
"
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42. Eduardo_ da_silvar
" @sami bara I actually agree with your statement & would add it to the list of issues. The puppeteers are spineless & can not tell those nations/business off & I bet that they get a % that benefits their selfishness."
Reply
43. Bungee Speaks
"
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44. Eduardo_ da_silvar
"@Bungee Speaks this is due to the fact that there is no presence of TV deals for most of the local African league's. Hence the lack of investment."
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45. Reply
Bungee Speaks
"@Eduardo_ da_silvar there are stadiums, nobody watches it.....so why will anyone invest in what no one will watch"
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46. BASED East African Warrior
"But no world cups because of France and European countries..
Africa will never win a World Cup"
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47. Prince G Yangi
"Damn seems like DR Congo is being forgotten for being the
first subsaherean team to be qualify in the world cup with alot of talents.
Not talking about the 9-0 defeat that Zaire
didn't want to play against Yugoslavia, because of Mobutu's regime."
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48. George Benson
"Western part of kenya,produces good footballers
but having a govt that doesn't support football like in west Africa since
independence,opposition zone is neglected."
49. steve irungu
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50. Sweet Lemonade
"Even in running west africa is still on top.
Nigeria has the fastest runners in Africa. While East Africa
is a champ at long distance running."
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Reply
51. DUSTY M-O-H
" @Sweet Lemonade I think it's a good balance, east Africa does
well in rugby and running, while West does well in football,"
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52. John Steytler
"Southern Africa is the best in rugby"
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53. Atao Ilirea
"Culture often counts as much if not more than talent. Is football very popular in east Africa or is it more divided into different sports ? West African country really are into football a lot while for instance the Southwest revolves more around rugby or cricket.
Thx in advance !"
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54. Jeffery Ling
"Could anybody explain to me why football ( soccer ) is not as well developed as rugby in South Africa ? As far as I know , South Africa does have decent football league and academies but still the national team just doesn't seem to be competiting with the likes of Nigeria , Cameroon , Egypt and Algeria in the continantel stage. Besides , football is also the most popular sports among South Africans, right ?"
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55. cannnamates hemp
"South African soccer was banned from Fifa tournaments because of Apartheid and it was allowed back into international scene just in the 1990s while rugby never really got disturbed.... but I see the current decade as one that our soccer will ascend again"
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56. coul j
"South African football is perplexing. There is a great
passion for the game there. You have great infrastructures, professional teams,
I don't get the lack of success of your teams."
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Reply
57. L10🐐
"Then why don’t we win anything or qualify for wc"
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58. coul j
"@L10🐐 We are not winning WC because producing great
individual talents is not enough.
1- The quality of football in local leagues have to improve.
2-Economic life of Africans in each country has to improve
in order to prevent kids from leaving home too early to go waste their talents
in leagues like India, Thailand, Vietnam...
3-Corruption, age
manipulation have to reduced significantly.
4- Mentality, coaching has to change, detecting a talented
young player is not enough, you need to nurture him, but he will need to be taught skills he doesn't
have like Ball control, passing accuracy , decision making under pressure,
movement without the ball.... so that when he reaches age 18-19, he's a
complete footballer.
To win a WC you need 22 very good players including 3 or 4
great talents. There is too much of a gap between our great talents and the
rest of the respective teams."
**
59. lordy daddy
"East Africa dominates Athletics(Marathons/Olympics) . South
Africa dominates Cricket /Rugby. Angola
(basketball).
What do you mean by talent?
Don't mislead . We dominate different niches."
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60. teddy nyakado
"Kenya has so many talented players the only
thing ailing Kenya football is corruption and politik in football"
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Reply
61. Sweet Lemonade
"West Africa also dominates athletics. Some of the the
fastest runners in Africa and the world are from Nigeria. Jamaicans and blavk
Americans are champions in fast running, and guess what? They are all of west
african descend! Mainly Nigerian, which is a country that also dominated in
that sport. Running fast is in the west african genes.
East Africa is the best at marathons (long distance
running). So I wouldn't say East Africa is the only one that dominates in
athletics."
**
62. Bungee Speaks
"Considering the population we have, the talent we produce is
extremely underwhelming tbh"
Reply
63. Princewill Madugba
"
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64. Asandza Vilakati
"Football is so badly funded here in eswatini that every
single player in the national league has a part time job, absolutely no one
genuinely thinks they can make it from here, to have any sort of chance u need
to be really rich to pay for trials and flights to other countries and that
isn't a viable option"
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Reply
65. v1
"so they’re semi professionals"
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66. Asandza Vilakati
"@v1 unfortunately so"
66. Josh Mutason
"Congo has and has always had world class players ,
representing France Belgium and a lot of others"
"Same problem with Guiné Bissau, Cabo Verde
Angola (less now) Portugal keeps pinching players."
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68. ABDISITARreacts
"Mali is the next talent factory in West Africa Redbull are already taking adavantage of it, Danish teams have academies in Ghana, but west African teams are not actively competetive in the champions league sad really"
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69. Me Myself
"Point of correction: Cameroon is not in West Africa."
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70. Ndonue Takwi
"Cameroon is historically in west Africa but joint other
former French colonies in central Africa"
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71. Theblack Gods
"Zimbabwe is not east Africa . It's southern africa"
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72. Atao Ilirea
"Hope the corruption will slow more each year. Many talented
kids in Africa will never be able to touch their dream thanks to some greedy
"football agents". Africa has the passion and the talent. The rest
will come. I'm expecting great things from North and West Africa at the next
world Cup !"
****
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