There is no doubt about the growing presence of dark-skinned or “black” soccer players in soccer teams and even in countries where they adopt their nationality to integrate their team and play in world cups like the current Qatar 2022. This has generated a debate that came even a misguided columnist for The Washington Post, the newspaper owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezzos.
There are medical and anthropological studies that position this social sector as physically faster and physically stronger than before, they were victims of racism and other types of discrimination just because of how they looked. Fortunately we have passed that time and now there are firm darker-skinned stars in football like the Frenchman Kilian Mbappe, Sadio Mané from Senegal, Riyad Mahrez from Algeria and several figures who mostly come from Africa, a continent that is exporting brilliant figures from global sports.
One that is now putting on pause the usual tasks of many people who follow the semifinals, one that has already defined the country that already has its place to compete for the title of best team in the world, Argentina, a neighbor of Paraguay that also has important athletes More according to the analysis of anthropologists in the world, the Argentines do not have many black players in the selection of their country and that is because it has not been a colonial nation in Africa, as is the case of Paraguay. A pattern that is common in many countries that ensure their victories and make their names the company of the victory of their teams and even countries in the case of the most important soccer tournament that Qatar has as its stage. The World Cup gives us an opportunity to talk about a central issue in these times: identity.
deep ignorance
Denise Edwards, in an opinion column published this week in the American media, He asks about the ethnic composition of the Argentine team, since, unlike so many other teams, it lacks black players. However, it does not provide cultural knowledge about the phenomenon.
Countries that have dark skin as something natural and organic due to the intense presence of people with a brown identity. As global human beings we must understand the importance and value that the integration of everything into something in particular means to win sports tournaments like soccer among all that can serve as an example of what is gained if there is a good integration between the members of the team.
Soccer, a sport that “unites the world” according to what Leonel Messi says in a FIFA promotion, should be an example of being really global, open and international because of the good way white people play with other dark-skinned ones.
Which in turn is a demonstration and a shout out to the stupid racism that goes against even the sport that now paralyzes the world. Sunday may or may not see how blacks or whites celebrate having become world champions, if Argentina allows it, of course.
