I might get a red card for this, but of course, we will have a look. European colonialist empires may have packed up their ports, but their new flagship export is football – colonialism with better PR, global TV rights, and a Champions League. The Portuguese first arrived in caravels in the South, but now they come bearing 54-page contracts titled, “Long-Term Player Development Plan for 16-Year-Old Left Wingers”.
We witness the annual ritual of football scouts descending upon the Global South like migrating birds with suits, Ray-Bans, and LinkedIn Premium to find a gifted 15-year-old from Ecuador, Senegal, or Nigeria and explain to him that his dream is to live in London and play for Arsenal. Then three years later, they just sell him to another club for the modest price of a small nation’s GDP.
We have to congratulate the main European football leagues on their mastery of the hegemonic control of the global football value chain. Why simply buy players when you can own the entire supply chain? Academies in Africa, partnerships in Asia, feeder clubs in Portugal, satellite clubs in Belgium, loan clubs in the Netherlands, wingers from Brazil, permanently disappointed-looking centre-backs from the Balkans, and hotshot, aggressive midfielders from Argentina, all while developing nations beg their talented teens to stay and play for their country. But who could blame them? Because at the end of the day, all roads lead to Europe: money, talent, and television rights. No wonder Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho, and Kylian Mbappé think that Europe has “better football culture”.
Even their terminology resembles that of colonial language. An African player is labeled as “raw” before being shipped off to Germany to gain “tactical intelligence”. Richard Giulianotti, a professor of Sociology at Loughborough University, notes in his book, Football: A Sociology of the Global South: “Transforming the athlete into a commodity like a coffee bean or a banana, Western agents build training camps to refine the raw and rich material of sports talent who accept the specific offer. The finest products are sent to be consumed by the affluent Western market; the inferior residue is left to the local population.”
Passing the ball to credit where it is not due, European leagues boast their “discovery of hidden gems” as proudly as the Queen once wore the Cullinan diamond on her head. Neymar and Julián Álvarez were deemed “unknown” until hitting European soil, even after playing over 200 games, scoring over 80 goals, and having fans name their kids and dogs after them across South America, as noted by ESPN and BBC Sport. It seems as though recognition is only awarded through that oh-so-narrow European lens – call it Eurovision.
ESPN recalled that former Italian Head Coach Gennaro Gattuso said that adding more African teams to the World Cup was “out of hand”. Sky Sports noted that Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool’s former coach, dubbed AFCON a “little tournament”, and even though he responded to the outrage by claiming that it was out of context, the rhetoric remains relevant to how African sports and leagues are perceived as side quests to the European leagues.
No one is asking you to ceremoniously burn your 2007 Manchester United away shirt or swear allegiance to every league south of the Mediterranean. But watching AFCON every now and then, or following the CAF Champions League, the Egyptian Premier League, Botola, the South African Premiership, the J1 League, Brasileirão Série A, or even the A-League Men not only increases your (literal) ball knowledge, but it builds an audience, attracts sponsors, creates commercial opportunities, and ultimately keeps players at home through improved wages and better facilities. Watching Global South football is not charity. After all, Messi, Salah, Mané, Osimhen, and Díaz did not rock up out of nowhere. They played at home first. So review my red card, and maybe we can win the game against colonial football legacies.
