November 01, 2007

Kicking the ball to Holland.: I explain that few people are even aware that Suriname exists, yet, far away ... where the stars of European soccer shine, Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard are famous names. They have Suriname in their past, but the jerseys they wear, or did wear, are Dutch. ... There are countries twice the size of Suriname without half its number of celebrity names. ... But the tragedy is that none of them can come and play for their country of origin.

posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 12:58 PM - 3 comments

Thanks - good article, WC2K2. To paraphrase from David Goldblatt's thesis in "The Ball is Round", this would be an example of high industrial football engaging in neo-colonial exploitation. Of course, this is too simplistic. The Surinamese obviously have great pride in the performance of their players for clubs in Europe and for Holland. The same goes for Africans and others playing for France. I've even met a bunch of anti-metropolitan Kanaks in New Caledonia who loved and supported France when Christian Karembeu helped them win the World Cup in 1998. Unfortunately the individuals often have to make a choice. Would Karembeu have swapped his winners medal for losing in the first round of the Oceania playoffs to Vanuatu?

posted by owlhouse at 05:28 PM on November 01, 2007

Interesting article. Although the repetition that Suriname is country was a little over done for my tastes. V interesting though.

posted by Fence at 04:26 AM on November 02, 2007

Thanks for posting this.

posted by Philfromhavelock at 07:54 PM on November 02, 2007

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