South American is the real home of football

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is revealing two things. That we have been blinded for a long time to believe that the SI unit of football is Europe. That we have not explored enough of the kind of football played in other parts of the world especially in South America. Going into the Round of the16, there were five representatives of the continent.

Well, our eyes are now open and we are getting to know that eal football is played on the other side of the Atlantic. But what are my parameters of deduction? Walk with me.

South Americans exhibit passion in their football. But there is no ‘passion-ometer’, you may say. Well there isn’t but just look at the Brazilian squad singing their national anthem before a match and you may know what I’m talking about. I used to think it was only Americans who wept when their anthem played, but watching the emotive decibels that come with singing the Brazilian anthem I got to know people are patriotic out there. These guys know what it means to be Brazilian.The Chilean squad the same!
I’m reminded that the pride in the nation for South American squads may be as a result of having pure citizens playing for their countries as opposed to the rest of the world that has dozens and dozens of naturalised footballers. The French, Belgian and German squads for example have mixed nationalities appearing in the respective squads. For such naturalised players, it becomes difficult for them to exhibit the passion they could have had were they playing for their original homelands.

It surprises that even Africa today has many naturalised players. You probably are not too young not to know the Brazil-born Tunisian Do Santos, while I have never bothered to understand the story of the German and Ghanaian Boateng family. Kevin Prince, the Boateng that plays for Ghana, is criticised for not being Ghanaian enough, while his German brother is also chided for not being German enough. You should probably remember the story of our own naturalised Taiwo Atieno for whom we spent sleepless nights just to get a work permit.

The case for the South American players is that they are pure breeds of their countries and understand what it is to play for such. They have huge populations that play football such that even the thought of getting foreigners to play in their leagues is unthinkable.

The nationalism factor may be attributed to the fact that almost the whole of South America is lumped into the Third World bracket. Poverty plays a part here. Their poverty is their motivation to excel so as to outclass European players who wallow in the miasma of opulence. I’m not buying this Third World country card because if it’s to be believed as it is, then how do we explain Cameroon’s poor show? Anyway, in my psychology class at the university, I learned that there’s poverty that spurs motivation, while another type oonly breeds stupidity. Cameroon belongs to one of the two.

To the propagators of "football made in Europe", better luck next time!