Willy Sagnol: "i don't want many African players"

Art Morte wrote:

Bénin wrote:I don't think it's offensive at all. All he said is true and legit. I'm african btw and knowing Sagnol , I believe these are his real motivations.

Ferguson also didn't like Africans players too much.

the only thing I take from this repeated requoting is that Sir Alex Ferguson was a racist as well

he didn't say black , did he ? he said " african " , as in footballers who spent their formative years in ( sub-saharan ) africa .

it's a generalizing statement that you can disagree with , but it's not racist .

I presume Sagnol was taken out of context given it is common to see that in the French language. Yet his premise holds true.

Players imported/exported from Africa (outside Algerians) in GENERAL are not taught football attributes outside the basics which amount to physical augmentation and a special dietary reserve. The reason for the limits are lack of resources, funding, foreign staff working within there, pedigree and other factors.

Aside from that it is no coincidence that it is rare to see a player from Africa (outside Algerians) with an actual football IQ or technique that is taught. It would be stereotyping if there were not such a small sample size of exceptions yet others would agree with me on how technically and in footballing intelligence terms limited they seem to be in a large number.

Whether we see improvement or not is undecided until the next crop of players from Africa show their prowess yet from what I have heard the funding within the general contingent of the continent has not significantly improved.

Added with the fact that the AFCON cup makes it a serious headache for managers considering it seems to be every 2 months.

It is not racist considering it has nothing to do with their race at all yet a observation on how players from Africa are limited within general.

Not really racist, he didn't say "my team will not buy African players" but instead "my team will have less African players, and he didn't say "all african players are rich in strength but weak in technique" but instead "typically african players are rich in strength but weak in technique".

relax, it was a joke.

Wasn't aimed at you but at the OP

ah ok.

I think it's a matter of framing, wording and context, because obviously the way it appears in the press text in the OP there are quite simply some racist buzzwords.
African-Athletic but undisciplined, 'Nordic'-Disciplined and intelligent etc.

However if it is meant as describing specific footballing aspects, as in "not received the same training to develop a certain footballing intelligence as players brought up in European academies", it's actually unrelated to racism, as Arq, farfan, freeza etc already made clear.

izzy wrote:Hmmm......

Is this offensive? The only part I find offensive is this;

Sagnol wrote:Typically, they are physical, ready for combat, and someone we can qualify as powerful. But football is not just about that. Football is also about technique, intelligence and discipline."

Well, that's just stupid.

agree with this....that part was foolish and i can see how one can deem this as offensive. actually it is offensive. its no different from when one american football coach (i can't remember who) said african americans didn't have the wit or brains (something to that effect) to play as quarter backs, as they could only run....football still has a long way to go in doing away with ridiculous stereotypes, if someone with sagnol's experience can say such

farfan wrote:he didn't say black , did he ? he said " african " , as in footballers who spent their formative years in ( sub-saharan ) africa .

it's a generalizing statement that you can disagree with , but it's not racist .

Nah breh, he didn't just single out the subsaharans, he includes you berbers along with it.

He hates you Maghrebis just as much as he hates the blackest of black

Sagnol doesn't hate north africans bro  , the dude pretty much worships zidane

ps: surprised that you're using " berber " instead of " arab " . you don't hear that very often in france, a country where even kabyles are called " arabs "

farfan wrote:Sagnol doesn't hate north africans bro  , the dude pretty much worships zidane

ps: surprised that you're using " berber " instead of " arab " . you don't hear that very often in france, a country where even kabyles are called " arabs "

My daughter and her mom actually live in the region so I got a pretty stern lecture fairly early about who was, and was not, considered Arab when I met her:lol:


I'm hurt if my daughter grew up to be a world class footballer Sagnol wouldn't want her because she would be an African player

a thread for best or most technically gifted african player of all time? eto'o, drog, weah, okocha, or yaya?

come on Okocha was above all in terms of skills, Ronaldinho learned everything from him ffs

I'm pretty sure when Sagnol said "African", he meant "players from African academies", from context this is all pretty solid. Different footballing cultures and mentalities instill different philosophies in players, and teach them different things.

You tend to find the most complete players in continental Europe, not because white man must rule the world, but because the academies there teach a mix of technique and physicality.

African academies are the most underfunded, hence players from there tend to have the least technical pedigree. Of course there'll be the odd exception, and a bunch of street footballers will have a ton of tricks up their sleeves.

But once you step back from the idea that "African equals black", and realize he's talking about football, and thus footballing education, that point is entirely valid.

The only countries I would trust to fill an entire, balanced, squad with players from their academies are all in continental Europe.