Ethnic identity and the choice to play for a national team: a study of junior elite football players with a migrant background

The diversification of national football teams: Using the idea of migration corridors to explore the underlying structures of nationality changes amongst foreign-born players at the football World Cup

“…As immigration policies in Germany and the Netherlands allowed for chain migration, including the possibility for guest workers to acquire German/Dutch citizenship, these guest worker migration corridors have been sustained by the movements of families and loved ones of Turkish and Moroccan guest workers (Castels et al, 2014; GLOBALCIT, 2017). As a consequence of these migratory movements and German citizenship laws, nearly 3 million people of Turkish ethnicity live today as German citizens or have dual citizenship; the German-Turkish community is the largest immigrant population in the country (Seiberth et al, 2019). At just over 400,000 in number, of whom 170,000 are first generation migrants, people of Moroccan descent are one of the largest immigrant groups within Dutch society (Statline, 2019).…”

“…However, as a consequence of Turkish guest workers’ immigration, many of today’s talented football players in German elite football have a Turkish migration background. While these football players are born and raised in Germany, went to German schools, and often represented Germany at various youth levels, they have yet to decide on their national allegiance in international football: Germany or Turkey (Seiberth et al, 2019). Several German-born ethnic Turks have made such a decision in favour of the German national football team, and have represented Germany in international football, Mesut Özil and İlkay Gündoğan being the most notable.…”

“…In this respect, the former (finally) tries to take advantage of the latter, which is illustrated by the selection of French-born players in the current national football teams of Algeria, Morocco and Senegal. Furthermore, migration flows characterised by guest workers have seemed to reverse in the context of international football as, increasingly, German-born Turkish footballers and Dutch-born Moroccan players are deciding to represent the national football teams of their (grand)parents, Turkey and Morocco respectively, instead of their country of birth (Kuper, 2018b; Seiberth et al, 2019).…”

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Impact of Social Networks on the Choice to Play for a National Team in Football

“…On top of the high demands of junior elite football and school, and in addition to a number of age-related developmental tasks, these players have to deal with the question of which national team they want to play for. This can be challenging for the adolescent players, as the decision of signing up (which is still reversible at the junior level) not only concerns questions of ethnic or national affiliation but can also have a considerable impact on their sporting careers [2].…”

“…It is evident that these works do not refer to elite youth sports and their specific context constellations nor to athletes with a migrant background as a specific population group. In fact, the impact of actors from the environment on career-relevant decisions in youth football has barely been addressed in national and international research to date, despite a series of interesting studies on the connection of migrant backgrounds, social identities and national team careers from the players' perspective [2,[13][14][15]. Accordingly, little is known about the environment and network actors involved in career-relevant decision-making processes in top junior sports, the role they play in this process and the way junior athletes process the various actors' input.…”