Not long ago Spain also won the Euro Cup – the biggest sport competition in Europe. Football that is. After the game people went into the streets to celebrate. The Spanish flags on display, honks, partying, “We won!” people were screaming!

What is interesting is that these are two of their best players of the tournament:

Yamal and Nico. Yamal’s father is a Spanish immigrant from Equatorial Guinea, and his mother is Moroccan. And Nico’s parents had to cross the Sahara’s desert to immigrate to Spain “illegally”.

Also two of Spain’s best defenders are called Robin Le Normand and Aymeric Laporte – not a fucking chance these are Spanish names! These guys are born in France.

Speaking of France, this is their football team:

No, this is not an African team, it is the “french” team. Most of their players have African roots. In fact when they won the World Cup in 2018, 87% of their team was made up of immigrants (them, their parents, or grandparents). And historically this has always been true for France.

Even their most iconic player Zinedine Zidane is of Algerian descent. His parents immigrated to Paris and he has described himself as a “non-practising Muslim”.

Lastly this is how the other finalists of Euro 2024, England, would look without immigrants:

Overall the African immigrants were some of the best players of this Europe football competition.

Keep that in mind!

So when their supporters shout “We won!” waving their nation’s flag, who is “we”? Who is Spain, France, England?

Food and Football, two very culturally grounded things in Europe, are all made up of bits from other parts of the world. And so is the case with every sport and dish from anywhere on this globe.

Snippet from Culture Cancer - tromsite.com/2026/07/culture-c…

#football #spain #worldcup #culture #catalonia #soccer #europe #england