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.

Goal celebrations generally fall somewhere in between raw displays of emotion (see Marco Tardelli in the 1982 World Cup final), incredible athleticism (can anyone beat Julius Aghahowa for that?), and sheer ridiculousness (sorry no video available, but see if you can recall Finidi George at the 1994 World Cup getting down on all fours before relieving himself on the corner flag). Recently, however, a new type of celebration has made its way into soccer: the religious celebration. And no player is more overt in praising God after scoring than the Brazilian Kaká.

Kaká’s celebrations initially appear simple. He raises both hands and lifts his head to the sky as he runs away from the goal. But the significance of these gestures is far more than meets the eye and begins to tell the story of one of the world’s most devoted religious soccer players.

Kaká is an evangelical Christian (Brazilian teammates Lucio and Edmilson are as well, but I am focusing on Kaká as he has the highest profile). He told the group Atletas de Cristo that he grew up in an evangelical family. “My parents were already saved and I grew up in the presence of the Lord.”

The young Brazilian’s faith became even stronger after he was baptized into the evangelical Reborn in Christ Church. He told Atletas de Cristo that was “when I began having a relationship of Father to son with God. … [S]omething supernatural happened to me. I can not explain it, but after that experience I got closer to God, more in-tuned with Him.”

Kaká is one of a growing number of evangelical Christians in Brazil. While Kaká’s homeland still has the largest Catholic population of any country in the world, the rise in evangelicals in the past few decades has been phenomenal. A recent article in the Washington Post offers some numbers:

Between 1980 and 2000, the number of those who identified themselves as evangelicals in national census counts doubled, to more than 26 million people in this country of about 185 million. The growth has changed the religious complexion of Brazil, where about 90 percent of residents identified themselves as Catholics in 1980. If the spread of the evangelical denominations continued at the same rate — an unlikely possibility, according to analysts — Catholics would be a minority here within 20 years.

But, as the same Washington Post article details, the rise of evangelical churches in Brazil has not been without controversy. Many of the churches focus on increasing personal wealth along with improving personal spirituality (and in this share many similarities with American evangelicals such as T.D. Jakes). But this monetary focus has made allegations of financial impropriety among church leaders particularly stinging. When Estevam and Sonia Hernandes-Filho, leaders of the a Brazilian evangelical church, were detained by U.S. Customs officials for attempting to bring in large amounts of undeclared cash, it was big news back in Brazil, where the couple is wanted for “siphoning off millions of dollars in followers’ money for personal enrichment.”

Estevam and Sonia Hernandes-Filho

News of the arrest of the Hernandes-Filhos was also notable because they head the Reborn in Christ Church, which counts a certain young man named Kaká among its disciples.The problems at the top of the church, however, have not filtered down to its most famous disciple. Kaká is described as having “impeccable manners and dedication” and has done work with the World Food Programme (see article titled Kaká Able to See Beyond Dollar Signs). He also has strong morals that he lives out in his professional life (the anti-Rooney, if you will): “I will not brawl … I am not supposed to be punching people up on the field or swearing.”

Kaká’s sense of morality also extends to his personal life. He objected to Carlos Alberto Parreira’s decision to allow the Brazilian players to have sex during the 2006 World Cup (maybe if the coach had listened, Brazil would have lived up to their potential). And, in what Alex Bellos said “must be a first for a footballer at his level” proudly declared himself to be a virgin at his 2006 marriage.

But, as defines evangelicals, Kaká is not satisfied to live out the Gospel in his own life. He has actively used his status as a professional athlete to promote his religious agenda. In addition to his more muted arms-raised celebration, Kaká has also made a habit of wearing t-shirts with evangelical messages underneath his uniform, which he exposes after scoring. The shirt he put on after winning the Champions League in 2003, which displayed the phrase “I belong to Jesus” (in English, a language he does not speak) was clearly intended to spreading a message to as wide an audience as possible.

Indeed, Kaká is open about his intentions. In his interview with Atletas de Cristo, he mixes the language of religion and soccer.

To those who already have Jesus: you have made the best choice and are in the best team. Go ahead. Do not give up. The fight is great, but we can only win being on Jesus’ side. To those who have not yet surrendered their lives to Jesus: What are you doing being outside of this team?! Come to learn the Word of God, come to know who God really is.

And, in what was either a prescient piece of advice to his soon-to-become rotund Brazilian teammate Ronaldo, the t-shirt slogan that didn’t make the cut, or his personal message of salvation for humanity, Kaká says, “Stop eating cookies, while God offers us a banquet.”

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Scan the roster of Guatemala’s U-20 national team and one name stands out: Dor Yasur. Next to Carlos Reyes, Ricardo Sandoval, and Rafael Morales, Dor Yasur sticks out a bit.When I first saw the roster, I knew there had to be an interesting story of how a player named Dor Yasur came to represent Guatemala. And I was correct. I tracked down Yasur and it turns out that he is a freshman at American University in Washington, not far from where I live.

Washington is the latest stop on Yasur’s soccer journey, which has been filled with interesting stops. He was gracious enough to sit down with me for an hour-long interview recently, and his story was worth every minute.

Dor Yasur showing off his skills

Dor Yasur is the first generation of his family to be born in Guatemala. His family is from Israel and his father worked for his country’s embassies around the world. It was while the Yasur family was in the Central American country that Dor was born (and this would ultimately make him eligible for that country’s national team).

Yasur lived the first twelve years of his life in Guatemala City and it was there that he first started playing soccer. He formed a team with Guatemalan friends called “Bad Boys” (in English) and later played for the team at his school.

At age 12, Yasur’s life took a major turn when his family decided to move to Boca Raton, Florida. By that time, Yasur had already been bitten by the soccer bug. In Florida, he joined local club teams and played on them until high school.

Most precocious athletes attend high schools with strong sports programs, but Yasur chose to attend a school in line with his faith. Donna Klein Academy, which Yasur describes as a “tiny Jewish [high] school” (it had 84 students when he was there), had just begun its soccer program. Yasur quickly became a star on the team, which he actually began playing on in eighth grade.

Said Donna Klein athletic director David Trell of Yasur:

[He] just dominated. We really didn’t know how we were going to play and what our situation was because we never had a program and he just took over. He had seven goals in one game. He had four in another. He finished with well over 20 goals last season. We finished 8 and 4 last year and I think the four losses we had were because he didn’t play.

Dor Yasur in his high school days

Yasur dedicated himself to soccer. In addition to regular practices and games, he worked with personal trainer Luis Gajardo five days a week from 7:30 AM to 10:00 AM. He later joined the Palm Beach Pumas, a U-23 team dedicated to helping high school players get scholarships with college soccer programs. Yasur says that Gajardo and his Palm Beach Pumas coach, Bobby Lennon, are “the major reasons” he has been able to keep playing after high school. He also credits his family for his success. “My family has really been there for me since the beginning.”

Yasur’s hard work paid off when he was given a scholarship to attend American University in Washington, DC. In the beginning, Yasur found the step-up to college ball a challenge. “I was god-awful the first few months,” he says. “I didn’t think I was going to see the field.”

But with characteristic tenacity, Yasur improved and when given a shot by coach Todd West, Yasur grabbed it with both hands. He played well and became a starter, playing 13 games in all. Yasur’s success at AU provided the springboard that would bring Yasur’s career full-circle.

Dor Yasur in his official American University soccer team photo

Just after the college season had finished, the Guatemalan under-20 national team was on a tour of the US in preparation for the upcoming World Cup qualifying tournament. After a friendly, Yasur’s former personal trainer, Luis Gajardo (who is also an assistant coach at Florida Atlantic University), was talking with Guatemala’s coach, Rodrigo Kenton.The Guatemalan boss mentioned that his team was missing a few pieces and said to Gajardo, “Do you know of any defenders?” Gajardo immediately thought of Yasur and urged Kenton to give him a shot. Kenton said, “OK, bring him down for a tryout.”

So eager was Yasur to take advantage of this opportunity that he flew from Washington to Florida the next day to meet up with the Guatemalan U-20s. Yasur participated in several training sessions and made his debut with the team in a friendly soon after.

(Amazingly, the Guatemalan team was originally planning to stay only three days in the United States, but a donor gave them money to stay longer. Had the team left after three days, Yasur never would have had the chance to meet up with them in Florida.)

Yasur says there were several differences between college soccer and the international game. The main difference was the emphasis on organization. “We worked on our defensive shape hours upon hours upon hours.” The Guatemalan team also focused on set pieces, knowing they might be the opportunity to score the winning goal in a tightly contested international match. And whereas Yasur describes college soccer as being fairly direct, he says his Guatemalan teammates were “some of the most skillful guys I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Yasur then returned to school at American University. A couple of weeks later, another piece of good news arrived, again through his former personal trainer. Gajardo called Yasur to let him know that he had made such a good impression on Rodrigo Kenton that the coach was inviting him to the training camp for the U-20 qualifying tournament. Soon after, Yasur got a call from a Guatemalan reporter who asked him: “Do you know you’ve been selected for the Guatemalan U-20 team?” Yasur responded excitedly, “Yeah, I know!”

Three days later, Yasur was again flying out of Washington, this time to Guatemala. There, he met up with his teammates and began training for the tournament. As he got to know his teammates better, their differences became apparent. “Some of them knew what being Jewish was, but some of them had no idea.”

Recognizing this, coach Kenton made clear to all of his players that Yasur was a part of the team, just like everyone else. Even though he had spent less time with the Guatemalan U-20s and had a very different background than most of his teammates, Kenton told his players that Yasur was there to help the team achieve their common goal: to qualify for the U-20 World Cup.

Sadly, that goal was not achieved. Despite having one of their most talented youth sides ever and a well-respected coach (Kenton had gone to the World Cup twice as assistant coach for Costa Rica in 1990 and Nigeria in 1998), the Guatemalans came up short. They tied host team Panama in an atmosphere that Yasur described as “nuts” and, to the surprise of many, drew with the heavily favored Americans as well. In the last game, the Guatemalans had to beat Haiti, but the Caribbean team came out strong and won 2-0, ending the Central Americans’ dream.

Dor Yasur (#2) with his Guatemalan U-20 teammates

Though Yasur didn’t get to play in the qualifiers, he says he enjoyed the experience and is hungry for more. “I’d love to play for Guatemala again,” he says. Yasur’s time with the Guatemala U-20s is now over as he’s too old for the next World Cup cycle, but he holds out hope of making the Guatemalan Olympic team for the 2012 games.By 2012, Yasur could be achieving his goal of playing professionally. “I want to play until my legs give out,” he says. What country would he like to play professional in, I ask.

“I’d like to play in Israel for Maccabi Haifa or Maccabi Tel Aviv because a lot of my family is there. I feel a connection to Israel still, being Jewish and going through Jewish school.” He reaches into his shirt and pulls out a necklace. On it are two pendants: a soccer ball and a Star of David.

I ask: Do you feel more Guatemalan? Israeli? American?

“That is such a hard question,” responds Yasur. “If I go to Guatemala, I’m not the Guatemalan. When I’m here in America, I’m not the American; I’m the Guatemalan or Israeli. In Israel, I’m the americano or the Guatemalan.”

Ultimately, though, Yasur says he feels the strongest connection to Guatemala and Israel (though not to the United States, a country of which he’s not a citizen).

Yasur’s career, indeed his life, has taken some fascinating turns. He is an Israeli born in Guatemala who later moved to Florida, then to Washington DC, and who now represents the country of his birth.

When I suggest that parts of his career have been due to chance, he is quick to correct me.

“It’s chance, but it’s chance and hard work. I can’t even tell you to countless hours I’ve spent training.” He then recalls a quote told to him while with the Guatemalan U-20s.

“Luck,” says Dor Yasur, “is when destiny and hard work meet.”

I apologize for the lack of updates all last week. I was visiting UC San Diego, where I will be entering a PhD program in anthropology in the fall (part of my research will look at the role of soccer among Spanish-speaking immigrants in the US). Posting will resume as normal now.

By the way, if you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to see me cover, please contact me. My email is david[at]cultureofsoccer.com (remove the [at] and replace it with @).

Apologies for the lack of updates in recent days. I’m out of town until next weekend. I’m trying to put together a profile of Dor Yasur, a member of Guatemala’s U-20 team whose family is Israeli. I interviewed him last weekend and he has a fascinating story. So, I will try to get that up this week sometime, but it will likely be the only update this week.

One of my pet peeves is when people discuss American soccer as if it were monolithic. Yes, it is true that much soccer is played by wealthy, white kids in the suburbs, but if you travel to nearly any area with immigrants you will see soccer being played. Soccer is big in this country, but it is hidden to many people.

The popularity of soccer in the US was shown in the announcement that Mexico’s recent supercásico, Chivas vs. America, drew 4.3 million viewers, the most for a professional club match in 13 years. Yes, there are a lot of Mexicans in this country and yes, many Mexicans like soccer.

The Mexico vs. Ecuador friendly also drew the interest of a couple of media outlets. The San Francisco Chronicle sent reporter David White across the bay to check out the atmosphere at the game. White described the game as “a Latin-flavored block party, only the size of a suburban city, as 47,416 futbol fans — the overwhelming majority bathed in the green, white and red of Mexico … [who] came together to celebrate sport and culture.” NPR also got in on the act, with their reporter recording the sounds at the game.

Ecuadorian fans cheer their team on

The fact that Mexico can consistently draw huge crowds when playing in the US got me wondering if there are other countries that can do the same? Can Turkey draw a crowd when playing in Germany? Senegal when playing in France? Other ideas, anyone?

As many of you have probably noticed, I am particularly interested in stories related to conflict and, conversely, conflict resolution. Given the nature of the Middle East today, many stories of violence and soccer are coming from that region. The situation involving the British sailors currently being held by Iran has the potential to lead to even more conflict between the UK and the Iranians. Neither country has done a good job of reducing the tension and the Houston Chronicle reported that in Iran this week “some 60,000 soccer fans chanted ‘Death to Britain’ at a match in Tehran.”

Recent anti-British protests in Tehran

Iranian anger toward the UK is not new: the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (which has since become BP) was deeply resented by many in the Middle Eastern country in the mid-1950s, which led to the election of nationalist Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh attempted to renegotiate what many Iranians saw as unfair contracts with the British oil company, which led to the CIA toppling him and reinstalling the Shah. The US may have been the one to overthrow the democratically-elected Mossadegh, but it was the British involvement that led to much of the anger toward the West in the first place. When, nearly 30 years later, the Iranian Revolution occurred, the US received the now well-known label of “Great Satan.” But less well known is that Britain is commonly referred to as “Little Satan.” This nickname was shouted again this week in the streets of Tehran along with the “Death to Britain.” I want to stop talking about Iraqi soccer players getting caught up in the violence wracking that country, but the stories just keep coming. This week, it was an eyewitness report from an Iraqi translator working for NPR who witnessed gunmen opening fire on teenagers playing soccer. Saleem Amer reports:

Two vehicles came and parked close to the parking lot. Four or five men left the vehicle, and we hear the noise, the shooting of the machine gun, it was so close, so loud and it was continuous. I start looking and they are shooting on the kids. Eight of the kids fell already on the ground. The guys kept shooting – they just wanted to make sure that everybody is dead.

There is a tiny bit of hope in the Middle East, even if it is constantly hidden under reports of horrible violence. When England traveled last week to Israel to humiliate themselves once again, several reporters went off the beaten path. Kevin Mitchell of the Guardian wrote a great piece about a soccer tournament which brins Palestianian and Israeli children together in sport. Mitchell harps on the theme that children have a “decency [that] disappears to once little boys start growing facial hair.” The tournament was “the football played by children behaving like grown men ought to.”

Reconciliation after conflict also popped up in a story about Didier Drogba winning the African Player of the Year award. After winning the award, the Chelsea striker went to the northern city of Bouake, home to a separatist movement in the country. While there, Drogba said

I have come here to offer you a golden ball, it’s the golden ball for the whole of the Ivory Coast. In June the whole Ivory Coast national team will be at Bouake for the match against Madagascar (in an African Nations Cup qualifier). 3 June will be a memorable day: it will be the victory for Ivory Coast football, the victory of the Ivory Coast people and quite simply there will be peace.

Didier Drogba shows off his award in Bouake

The effects of civil war can be horrendous. For evidence of this, one need only look back a little over 10 years to Rwanda. This week, a BBC article wrote of the lack of good players in the twenty-something age range because so many were killed during the 1994 genocide. Coach Michael Nees bemoans the fact that many of his potential players were killed, a blight on the Rwandan national team as well as the world that let it happen.

The Rwandan national team

More in the mold of a cold war, the low-level conflict in Korea since the separation into North and South has seen periodic attempts at reconciliation but no breakthrough as of yet. Another small step in what we can hope will lead to reunification occurred when the North Korean U-17 national team traveled to Jeju Island for a month-long training camp. Sadly, attempts by local residents to reach out to the team – including deliveries of of hallabong fruit and sushi-grade fish – were ignored. The media didn’t fare much better with the team avoiding local reporters. Said an official from the South Korean Football Association, “In their dictionary there may be no words for ‘media service’ or ‘photo session’.”

North Koreans, don’t you want some hallabong?

If the conflict between North and South Korea is comparable to a Cold War, what is the word to describe a conflict which doesn’t exist? Though there hasn’t been actual conflict over Macedonia, the name of that country is disputed. Some in Greece think that Macedonia should only be used to refer to the Greek province of the same name. A mention in the Christian Science Monitor’s “Reporters on the Job” segment had this soccer-related story that illustrates the difference.

For correspondent Nicole Itano, clashing views of history in the Balkans is not confined to the classroom (see story). The taxi driver she uses to get around Athens, for example, will order passengers to get out if they refer to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM) as simply “Macedonia.” The reason: Greeks say that the kingdom of Alexander the Great, known as Macedonia, was part of present-day Greece. “Many Greeks are upset at what they see as an attempt by a Slavic country to appropriate his legacy for itself,” Nicole says.

During a Greek broadcast of a soccer match between England and Macedonia, Nicole says, the station superimposed the letters FYRM (pronounced “feerim”) to “correct” the scoreboard’s rendering of the teams: ENG vs. MAC. “That’s how touchy these issues are,” she says.

And finally, from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, where I found an blog that gives me the opportunity to use one of my favorite characters ever, Borat. That’s because Kazazkhstan beat Serbia in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Only one thing needs to be said about that.

Very nice!

Speaking of soccer results leading to national merrymaking, Peru’s U-17s qualified for the upcoming World Cup. According to the blog Journal Peru, the team’s results in the qualifying tournament were enough to send the country into uncontrolled ecstasy. Wolfy Becker writes that the team, which won only a single game in the tournament but qualified anyway, has become the darling of Peruvian media, being reported on constantly. And even if the team is unlikely to win the U-17 World Cup, they have proven one thing, says Becker: “Peru is already the world champion in celebrating!”

Peruvians welcome their U-17 national team back to the country

Back stateside, the MLS season starts next weekend. A couple of stories about the league came out this week. The Wall Street Journal took a look at the economic development of the league, saying that MLS has quietly (not including Beckham’s signing of couse) established a base for success. Meanwhile, Ian Plenderleith at US Soccer Players says that MLS must focus on improving the on-field product. Plenderleith quotes deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis saying that the infrastructure is now established and that “the most important thing in MLS’ development over the next five years is going to be the game itself.” As someone who’s watched MLS since the days of the Wiz and the Clash, I agree 100%. I love MLS because it produces the national team players of the future, but the on-field product is often lacking. Now that the financial foundation appears in order, improving the game is vital.

And finally, for those interested in the just released Iranian movie Offside (which I discussed last week), I came across a website with fantastic pictures of female football fans (who are restricted from watching many games). Definitely worth a peek.