What I’m Reading: April 14, 2007

Watching soccer in the US, I’ve recently begun to notice the rising number of African-Americans on the field. Soccer is moving into the mainstream in this country, and in no way is it more obvious than in the increasingly numbers of blacks you see playing the professional game here.

It turns out that the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) has made a concerted effort to recruit players from all backgrounds. As Mike Woitalla reported in Soccer America on April 6, the number of African players in USSF youth national teams has increased dramatically in recent years. He writes that nearly one fourth of the players in the U-17 residency program in Brandenton, Florida are African immigrants or sons of African immigrants. Many of these players grow up playing pick-up soccer in their neighborhoods, which helps them to develop what U-17 coach John Hackworth calls ”a love affair” with the ball.

Abdusalam Ibrahim, born in Ethiopia, now plays for FC Dallas and the USA U-17 national team

But while the numbers of black players are rising, the same cannot be said of African-American coaches. In an article titled Where are America’s Black Coaches? Woitalla points out that no African-American has ever managed an MLS team. In fact, a quick scan of the MLS website shows that there is only one (yes, one) black assistant coach (Chicago’s Denis Hamlett).

What is the solution to this problem? The NFL has recently begun requiring teams to interview at least one African-American candidate for each head coach position opening. And this past Super Bowl, of course, featured two black coaches for the first time ever, in a sport whose players are overwhelmingly African-American.

But in England, a country that has more than most to deal with racism in soccer, the statistics are nearly as poor for diversity in management. A recent BBC report showed that “[l]ess than 1% of senior coaching staff at the 92 league clubs are black – even though more than 20% of players are.” The article discusses the need to improve diversity in the coaching ranks, and the impediments to doing so. But, like in the US, there has been relatively little discussion of race in management, a problem that is a shameful on either side of the Atlantic.

One of the growing number of black players in MLS is Bouna Coundoul, who is now the Colorado Rapids’ starting goalkeeper after playing second fiddle to Joe Cannon. Robert Sanchez wrote an excellent profile of the Senegal-born goalkeeper, who came to the US at age 14. The jovial Coundoul “learned rudimentary English by watching Looney Tunes” but never completely lost touch with his home country. He often wears typically Senegalese clothing and eats his country’s fare, even though he now lives in Colorado.

Bouna Coundoul at home with a Senegalese meal

Coundoul is still an extremely devout Muslim and essentially cloisters himself in his apartment while not playing soccer, in order to avoid other women. He is waiting for his wife to join him from Senegal and staying home is his way of being a “good boy” in order to make “[his] wife … proud.” He also wakes up at 4:30 every day to pray, which is probably about the time when Mr. Potato Head is crashing his Aston Martin.

Bouna Coundoul was not the only Muslim soccer player who caught my interest this week. One came from Iraq, where a joint Sunni-Shiite TV/radio station began their broadcasts with a soccer game that featured Iraqis of mixed sectarian backgrounds. And the Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid reported on the protests in Lebanon which have “settled into a routine.” One example of the routine nature of the protests: “[p]rotesters divided into 11 teams and played their weekly soccer tournament in a deserted parking lot.”

In South America, president Nicanor Duarte sought to make himself the “Don Imus of Paraguay” this past week. At a recent speech, he offered an audience member’s “services” to a female cabinet minister who, according to Duarte, needed a romantic partner. Like Imus, Duarte has a long history of telling “jokes” but the Paraguayan president’s humor was honed in his previous career as a soccer commentator. Eric Wynalda in 2020, anyone?

Sticking with South America, the extremely polemical and soccer-hating blog Oil Wars does have some interesting pictures on Venezuela’s preparations for the Copa America. The stadiums that president Hugo Chavez is building are expensive, but nothing a little oil can’t finance (do SUV drivers know or care that they’re funding soccer stadiums in Venezuela?). In between pot shots about the Venezuelan opposition and soccer (“all this for some non-sense that barely qualifies as a sport”), the blogger does bring up the interesting point about whether it makes sense to spend huge amounts of money on stadiums in a country which has a poverty rate near 50%.

A stadium under construction in Venezuela

And some quick hits to finish off:

• I love reading about soccer in obscure places. The blog Ishtiba helped me to get my fix by describing the atmosphere in a recent game between Mauritius and Sudan (amazingly, not shown on ESPN). I love the pictures of the red, blue, yellow, and green Mauritian flags.
• I can never tell if Jose Mourinho is really as arrogant as he comes across or if he’s just acting as part of his notorious mind games, but his quotes are something else. Who Ate All the Pies did a round-up of his top 10 most arrogant quotes (the list could have been much longer, I’m sure). My favorite: “We are on top at the moment but not because of the club’s financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work.” Sure, Jose, sure.
• Another best of list came in this week’s The Knowledge from the Guardian. This week’s edition included strangest footballer names and they have some great ones. Naughty Mokoena would top most lists, but not one which also includes Brazilian Credence Clearwater Couto. Yes, really.
• And finally, Beckham may be the prettiest face in football but not after he’s helped you clean your rear end. Spice Boy’s face on TP sounds like a funny idea hatched in a bar around closing time, but in fact, as The Offside reported this week, it’s true.

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