The evolving nature of the footballing relationship between France and its former colonies

Photo by Jannik on Unsplash

Avnish Anand

LinkedIn; Medium

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Why Achraf Hakimi and Ayyoub Bouaddi are torch bearers for future French footballers of multicultural origins

On June 13th, Morocco’s 18 year old wonder kid midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi announced himself to the larger world.

In a commanding performance at the heart of Morrocco’s midfield, he completely dominated the likes of Casemiro and Fabinho.

While football nerds and talent scouts have known about him for a while, this was truly the moment when the larger footballing universe stood up and took notice of this amazing talent.

Bouaddi belongs to a long line of footballers whose origins lie in one of the former French colonies but were born in France and nurtured in the French football academies.

However there is big difference. He’s an elite talent who represented France at all age group levels but decided to represent Morocco at the senior level.

He follows in the footsteps of Achraf Hakimi, another elite level talent who gave up the chance to represent Spain and chose Morocco instead.

Both of them are exceptions to the way the relationship between France and its former colonies work when it comes to football talent.

France has arguably been the most dominant footballing nation in the last 30 odd years.

A key reason has been the presence of sons of immigrants from former colonies (Zinedine Zidane, Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba, Ousmane Dembele etc etc ).

Without this diaspora talent, there is no way France becomes the football powerhouse that they have become in the last 30 years.

The dominance of the multicultural player pool has been a heavily debated topic inside and outside France. None of the former imperialist powers have benefited from diaspora talent like the way France have.

Almost 80% of the French squads in the last 3 decades usually consist of multicultural talent.

Critics have called this “Sporting Neocolonialism” where a former imperialist power continue to brazenly raid the riches of its former colonies. Long after the last of the French Legion left their shores.

This raiding of talent has given France unprecedented footballing success. And the gains aren’t just limited to success for the national sides.

The French clubs and their academies have also benefitted tremendously. While Brazil remains the biggest importer of football talent in absolute terms, France is no 1 when it comes to exports to the top 5 leagues in Europe.

As we all know this where the richest clubs in the world play and needless to say, French clubs are at the top when it come to regularly securing high transfer fees for the multicultural talent they develop in their academies.

There is also political mileage and soft power. Success on the pitch allows France to project an image of a harmonious, well integrated multicultural society. Even though the reality is far from it.

Are there any benefits for the former colonies ? Or is it just like the plunder of the old imperialist days ?

The reality is that the colonies are also benefitting. Earlier as per FIFA rules, a player who represented a country at any level was locked with that country for life.

A 2004 FIFA ruling changed that. As per the new rules, the restriction came into play only if you represented a country at the senior level.

This allowed many French youth internationals who hadn’t made the cut for the senior side to switch their allegiance to their parents’ countries.

As a result many of the former colonies started to get an infusion of top level European trained talent. They have undoubtedly benefitted from it.

Essentially the former colonies are inheriting world class players at zero development cost.

The entire cost of training and developing them at the top French academies like Clairefontaine are being borne by the French tax payer.

Finally some capital moving in the other direction, albeit in an indirect way.

These former colonies don’t have the development infrastructure that is available in France and there is no doubt that these finishing schools play a big role in ensuring these talented youngsters are converted into top class players at the highest level.

This seems to be like a win-win relationship between France and its former colonies. Not quite actually.

While the colonies are also benefitting, there has always been a huge asymmetry in the relationship. France gets all the elite , once in a generation talent.

The Zidane’s, Mbappe’s, Pogba’s and Benzema’s of the world inevitably pick France.

France usually gives such players their senior debuts very early, effectively locking them forever. They only need 25–30 players at any time for the national pool and they always get the best of the lot. The colonies get the best of the rest.

The second tier talent. They aren’t bad but they are essentially like the QC rejects of French football.

However, the disparity in the relationship is changing.

At the 2026 World Cup, there are 99 players who were born and trained in France. Teams like Algeria, Senegal and Congo have 10+ players of this ilk.

All the others like Morocco also have a handful. The number of multicultural players switching teams and representing the countries of their families’ origin has grown exponentially in recent years.

The flow of players in the other direction has become a flood and the reverse talent movement has become very crucial to the success of many of these national teams.

They might not be getting the elite players but the quantity of good players they are getting is transforming their fortunes.

A case in point is the Senegal team which has become dominant in Africa.

The footballing relationship between France and its colonies is becoming less asymmetrical and a little more symbiotic.

Now there is the fascinating case of Ayyoub Bouaddi

Players of his prodigious talent have ALWAYS chosen France. His transfer value could rise to a 100 million euros if he continues to perform at the same level and the Moroccans go deep.

He was convinced by the Moroccan footballing project being undertaken for the 2030 World Cup which will be hosted in Spain and Morocco.

There is also the case of Achraf Hakimi. Arguably the best right back in the world, Hakimi was born in Spain and part of the Real Madrid youth set up.

He even attended training sessions with the Spanish national youth setup. But he never felt at home. Never felt a connection. He chose Morocco at the youth level itself.

He has become an elite player and has also enjoyed unprecedented success with the Moroccan national team. Reaching the semis of the Qatar World Cup.

The “not feeling a connection” part is interesting. There is racial inequality in French society ( even in other European countries ) and it is a serious social problem that many footballers of multicultural origin have spoken about.

It will be interesting to see how the journeys of Hakimi and Bouaddi and the success they enjoy with Morocco influences the choices of future French born multicultural talent.

They are getting world stage exposure and success previously thought impossible for African teams. It will only get bigger and better at 2030.

The training facilities at Morocco’s Mohammed VI Complex are state of the art. Life is getting better and better as a Moroccan national team player.

Their success could convince more such players to follow their path.

If that happens the asymmetry will reduce even more. And African football will gain in a big way.

I am cheering for that.