Immigrant footballers and the continuous struggle for respect and recognition
Football is a global sport, however, even in the most popular sport in the world racism still occurs. In a world where diversity and cultures should be celebrated, they are criticised, with the likes of Benzema, Lukaku, Özil, and more receiving heavy criticism when they fail to perform. While it’s normal for players to be criticised when they don’t perform, there’s another layer of criticism that these players receive, which has to do with the fact that they’re not originally from the nation that they’re playing for.
In-group bias
In-group bias is a pattern of favouring members of one’s in-group over out-group members. For example, the majority of German society, who are white, will tend to favour Manuel Neuer over someone like Mesut Özil is most situations, as it’s someone that the people resemble closer too. Yet as time has gone on, what many footballers from immigrant backgrounds have started to realise is that no matter how well you do, they’ll always be a target on your back and people waiting for you to fall.
Karim Benzema
Despite Benzema’s poor form at Real Madrid this season, he’s undoubtedly one of France’s best strikers at the moment, and should have been called up for Euro 2016 and maybe even this World Cup. The main reason why Karim Benzema has not been called up to the France national team is because of his involvement in helping fellow teammate Mathieu Valbuena as part of the “sextape scandal.” Nonetheless, despite the attacking talent that France has, it seems that the selectors of the France national team have continuously overlooked an incredible talent in Karim Benzema over the past few years.
But the issue may not revolve around Karim Benzema’s abilities as a footballer, but instead around his ethnicity. In a Netflix documentary titled “Le K Benzema”, Karim Benzema stated his frustrations whenever he played for the French national team, stating that, “When I score, I’m French. When I don’t, I’m Arab.” This is where the in-group bias applies. Even though throughout the whole World Cup Olivier Giroud failed to manage a single shot on target, he doesn’t receive as much criticism from the French public as someone like Karim Benzema does when he fails. Yet this may not just be an issue around in-group bias, but also an issue around prejudice. Prejudice is when one or many has an unjustifiable attitude towards others. In this case, some of the French public have a prejudice against Karim Benzema.
Romelu Lukaku
“When things were going well, I was reading newspapers articles and they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker.
When things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent.”- Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku is someone whose had to work extremely hard to get to where he is today. Coming from an impoverished background and someone of colour, Romelu Lukaku always had a disadvantage growing up striving to become a footballer, yet as time passed and he continued performing, many still criticised him. When Lukaku succeeds, the Belgian media will consider him Belgian, yet when he fails to perform, the media will say he’s originally from Congo. What this insinuates is that the media and the Belgian people only want to associate themselves with Lukaku when he’s doing well, yet when he’s down and out of confidence, the people and media won’t back him.
“I’m Belgian.
We’re all Belgian. That’s what makes this country cool, right?
I don’t know why some people in my own country want to see me fail. I really don’t. When I went to Chelsea and I wasn’t playing, I heard them laughing at me. When I got loaned out to West Brom, I heard them laughing at me.
But it’s cool. Those people weren’t with me when we were pouring water in our cereal. If you weren’t with me when I had nothing, then you can’t really understand me.”-Romelu Lukaku
Once again, in-group bias kicks in. Even when Lukaku does well, there’s always a group of people waiting to see him fall, pouncing on his misfortunes, and using that to make a case that he’s not truly Belgian. For footballers like Lukaku, no matter how well you do, the colour of his skin and where he’s from unfortunately leads to extra criticism that others wouldn’t receive.
Mesut Özil
Despite the quality that Mesut Özil possesses as a footballer, he can never escape from criticism. Following Germany’s shock elimination in the group stages of this year’s World Cup, many German fans blamed Mesut Özil for the elimination, mainly blaming his laziness and inability to perform when it matters. Yet while some of that criticism may be applicable at times, that always isn’t the case.
Recently Mesut Özil announced that he is retiring from the German national football team, an announcement that saw him blame the federation and the players for their inability to back him when it matters and also how they handled the backlash that he was receiving. Similar to what Benzema and Lukaku have said, Özil stated that, “Whenever we win, I’m German, whenever we lose, I’m an immigrant,” exemplifying the agenda that the media and the German people have against Mesut Özil. Unfortunately for Özil, no matter how well he performs, there’s always a group of people criticising him, even if it’s the smallest of things.
Raheem Sterling
Despite failing to record a goal, Raheem Sterling had a good World Cup. His ability to read the game and create space for others is what gets him into the team, yet many fail to see that. Sterling has missed many chances in this World Cup, however, many have decided to highlight his inability to put away chances instead of how he helps this England team. His impact has been evident throughout this World Cup.
When England were trailing against Croatia and Sterling was subbed off for Rashford, England lacked someone up front that could create space for others and someone that could make the right decisions when going forward. Sterling’s improvements as a footballer over the past season has mainly been credited to Pep Guardiola, working on Sterling’s incisiveness, and his incisiveness on the pitch has started to pay off more recently as a footballer. However, there will still be a group of people that will criticise him. Former Premier League footballer Vinnie Jones has stated that, “If Sterling didn’t have pace, he would be playing for Exeter.” Not only that, but the popular British media seem to have a clear agenda against him.
When Sterling got a gun tattoo on the right leg, he received huge criticism from the media, with the likes of the Sun and Piers Morgan stating that he should be dropped and get rid of the tattoo. Yet even after explaining the significance of the tattoo, many continue to attack him and fail to recognise the hypocrisy of their statements.
Jimmy Durmaz
In Sweden’s group stage match against Germany, Jimmy Durmaz gave away a foul in a very dangerous position. Toni Kroos of Germany scored from that freekick, meaning that Sweden lost the game. Following the match, Durmaz received a lot of hate on social media, especially on Instagram and Twitter, mainly insults towards his Syriac heritage and the fact that he’s not purely Swedish.
While he did give away an important freekick, when John Guidetti had the chance to win the game for Sweden, he made the wrong decision, yet didn’t receive the same criticism for his decision, as he’s white and blonde. Durmaz’s criticism once again falls on the ideas of in-group bias and prejudice, the idea that you’re held to double standards if you’re originally from another nation or you’re not purely from that nation.
It’s 2018 and unfortunately, these players and more still suffer from racism no matter how well they perform. Despite the efforts of UEFA and FIFA to take serious action when players are racially abused, it will take much more than that. Maybe it’s not about deincentivizing racial behaviour through monetary means, but rather through changing the behaviour and the openness of people in different societies.
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