India/China

suffer from basketball and American football taking the tallest & widest athletes attracted by the money in these sports

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Not sure about this. Firstly, you don't need a massive population to produce a cohort of great footballers. Look at Uruguay, Portugal, Netherlands. It's about having a strong enough development system with access to talent. Soccer will always compete with other sports in the US, but in terms of absolute numbers, there should be plenty. Secondly, I'd question whether the ideal physiques for basketball and (in particular) American football correlate with football.

My anecdotal experience is that you can play football with people from countries that don't produce great footballers and the average level is no lower than that of people who play football recreationally in footballing superpowers. (Similarly, free-for-all kick arounds on 'cage' football courts in Manchester when I was a teenager disabused me of any ideas I might have otherwise taken on that the lack of south Asian footballers in the PL reflected a lack of talent at grassroots.) I do think it's much more about the existence / absence of development pathways.
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I agree with this. I think the quality starts
to show in the lower Pyramid leagues in England


. I played at this level where we were paid to play, in leagus thst had turnstiles and paying spectators, match programmes and sponsors, local press interviews and write ups and I was managed by a couple of very famous ex England international footballers. In china and india I dont know how deep their footballl leagues go but I doubt you wont get any of that past their top 2 leagues.

Silver, good points about differences in development of the sport in different regions. On South America, I'd comment that while distances are massive, in most countries large % of the population is very concentrated in a few urban areas. It's a continent with wide areas that are very sparsely populated, and which also has dozens of 1million+ cities, several 5million+ cities, and a handful of ~10million or more. That's probably why South Americans were competing for and winning World Cups such a short time after the sport was introduced by European ex-pats.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 4 minutes ago
suffer from basketball and American football taking the tallest & widest athletes attracted by the money in these sports

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Not sure about this. Firstly, you don't need a massive population to produce a cohort of great footballers. Look at Uruguay, Portugal, Netherlands. It's about having a strong enough development system with access to talent. Soccer will always compete with other sports in the US, but in terms of absolute numbers, there should be plenty. Secondly, I'd question whether the ideal physiques for basketball and (in particular) American football correlate with football.
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There should be numbers, yes. My point was just with soccer not being the 'premier' sport (#4 actually) that your average athlete is going to gravitate towards the popular sports irrespective if they have the physique or not and if they've spent the ages 8-16 not playing serious soccer they've already missed the boat.

My lad plays over there so I've spent a fair time and what is heartening is the number of kids walking about with a football rather than anything else. And, of course the US speciality, infrastructure - when they do it they go large and vast numbers of 30 pitch resources sitting empty 95% of the week waiting for it.

comment by Robb #456 (U22716)
posted 2 hours, 52 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 2 minutes ago
Football is very popular in China, so that's a weird one. I guess they don't have the level of infrastructure required to allow for a young player to flourish.

India is fairly obvious.
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Even with India though - there are loads of Indian heritage populations in football mad countries. I know there’s the cliche that their parents want them to focus on school rather than sports but you’d think a few would break through.

Locally here Indonesia has a huge population and are obsessed with football. I work with an Indonesian guy who’s shocked all the money and effort the country is throwing into the sport isn’t really paying off yet.
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You may think so, however in my experience very few Indians play football at grassroots level, and the UK has a substantial Indian population.

When you think of how many players make up the top leagues from South America, Africa, Europe, then how many young players step up from grassroots into professional football, then how many of those young players are of Indian heritage, the chances are minuscule.

Can anyone name a different Chinese international that played alongside Roy Keane?

comment by Robb #456 (U22716)
posted 3 hours, 21 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 2 minutes ago
Football is very popular in China, so that's a weird one. I guess they don't have the level of infrastructure required to allow for a young player to flourish.

India is fairly obvious.
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Even with India though - there are loads of Indian heritage populations in football mad countries. I know there’s the cliche that their parents want them to focus on school rather than sports but you’d think a few would break through.

Locally here Indonesia has a huge population and are obsessed with football. I work with an Indonesian guy who’s shocked all the money and effort the country is throwing into the sport isn’t really paying off yet.
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Indonesia seem to be doing quite well recently. They still have an outside chance of qualifying for the World Cup, have produced some decent results over the last few years and have players playing all over Europe now rather than just the local leagues.

They've firmly established themselves as a mid-tier Asian footballing nation who in a one-off match can pose a threat to the traditional heavyweights. They can certainly draw from a large population and any Dutch nationals with Indonesian heritage.

Jimmy Carter who played for Millwall and Arsenal in the late 80s/early 90s

Carter was born on 9 November 1965, of mixed ancestry. His British surname came from a 17th-century ancestor who moved to India and married an Indian woman. His father Maurice originated from Kanpur in India, and was brought up in Lucknow.

comment by HB Fash (U21935)
posted 1 hour, 18 minutes ago
Can anyone name a different Chinese international that played alongside Roy Keane?
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Yes

comment by HB Fash (U21935)
posted 1 day ago
Can anyone name a different Chinese international that played alongside Roy Keane?


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Sum Yung Guy