Whether it is something you have acknowledged or not, it seems increasingly difficult if not impossible to find a player who sits behind the striker or an attacking midfielder or a jinky winger who is not either white European or South American in the Premier League or La Liga. Certainly I can't think of many of the top of my head, bar Steven Pienaar.
It would be absurd to suggest that there are none, but it seems that whether it is by institutionalised design at grass roots level or a sense that still exists that the best players for those positions are Hispanic or white, somewhere along the line players form Africa or of African descent are put into different positions on the pitch where creativity is not as highly valued. Certainly, in the NFL until recently, the Hall of Fame quarterbacks were without exception white, and as the old football saying goes, perhaps their face just didn't fit. Even if those players have displayed a touch of flair or ability to pass in to good areas, that is often ignored in favour of playing them further back the pitch, in particular in defensive midfield.
Something which also pointed me towards this topic was a piece I wrote recently on Jay Jay Okocha, arguably one of the last great showmen of football (along with Ronaldinho). I say this because while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are clearly fantastic footballers, they're not showmen. They do tricks purely in a functional way in order to score goals, which they do by the bucket load. Okocha and Ronaldinho appear to get great joy (as does the crowd, it should be added) from the feat of pulling off the unexpected. In case you've forgotten Jay Jay, sit back and enjoy this clip.
George Weah was another hugely talented player who, while more of a striker than a creative midfielder, still showed incredible vision for a pass, went on weaving runs and mesmerised us with spectacular goals. Not that it should need to be included of course, but we all remember this all-time classic one against Verona.
Difficult to watch that without thinking of the Football Italia theme tune with James Richardson enjoying an espresso at a piazza.
Anyway, back to business. Other creative players who spring to mind are those like Finidi George, highly prized as a creative force, not as a defensive midfielder; Clarence Seedorf , who is still playing in Brazil and has shown that he is more than capable of fulfilling that role and there would be very few people who would not say that he is a player of real class.
These examples are all of midfielders who you could build a team around, who would dictate the pace of a game and produce a moment of genius that would decide it. While there are many strikers who are not white in the Premier League and other European leagues, these players are often not as skillful or creative as those cited above, perhaps because the demand (and therefore the money for smaller clubs and academies) is in producing players who are physically strong, powerful, and have enough technique to be a purely functional player in their position. Although Drogba is clearly gifted with technique and skill, and perhaps even Romelu Lukaku also, both of those players are always discussed in terms of their physical attributes first and foremost.
Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel were two of the most highly rated midfielders in African football in recent memory, and yet at Chelsea, both were put behind the midfield to shield the defence. Essien came to the Premier League with a reputation as the creative force in the midfield of Ghana's national team, but ended up being, for want of a better word, a clogger. He showed his ability and technique with a memorable goal against Barcelona on his left foot, but it was not enough to see him moved further up the field and given a bit more freedom. In fact, as his career progressed, he ended up being shoved in at right back and the odd time at centre back, simply because of his frame.
Mikel has also not produced the goods in the middle of the park for Chelsea, but also while playing out of position. It should not be glossed over that Manchester United and the London club virtually went to war over how highly rated this teenager was, and then wasted his talent by playing him in a part of the pitch that he wasn't comfortable in. Yet still, when he plays for Nigeria and is given a more advanced role, he looks like a totally different player and fans wonder why that is.
While not from Africa, Anderson was a black player who arrived to England with the tag of the 'New Ronaldinho' hanging around his neck like a millstone. It turns out that he needn't have worried about that, as he was immediately sent to defensive midfield to get through the work and break up the play. He was also sent to the gym to bulk up, and even the most casual Premier League fan will tell you that he's not exactly a vision of physical fitness.
Perhaps, on reflection, he is not meant to carry that much muscle, perhaps he was destined not to get through defensive work where any Manchester United fan will tell you he's not really suited to playing, perhaps, indeed, his frame when he arrived allowed him to manoeuvre and turn quickly, to wriggle away from challenges and to glide around the area of the box producing smart passes and moments of excellence. Ask fans if that's the Anderson they would have preferred to see, the one whose debut season saw him play to a very high standard, and you will only get one answer.
But that is the way the game has gone. The production (and I choose that word deliberately) of young players is now big business, and you make a product to suit demand. That demand is for someone who can run for 90 or 120 minutes, make a tackle and maybe shoot the odd time.
There is the possibility that, like in Brazilian football, the money is in making players of a certain type and that has caused this shift. Years ago, before Spain arrived with their tiki taka football Brazil shifted their attentions to producing athletic players who were more physical than the opposition, and still technically solid. Now they're laden down with midfielders who can shore up the defence, but struggle to find one creative striker, a position where they were spoiled for choice for decades.
To return to where we started out with the NFL, even the terminology in and of itself is becoming tainted, with the world "athletic" or "mobile" being used almost exclusively for black players in American football. The NFL in recent years has seen a huge sea change, where now some of the best and most versatile quarterbacks in the game are not white. Robert Griffin III proved that last season, Cam Newton had a record breaking debut year, Russell Wilson (also deemed too small to play the position) was absolutely irresistible and nearly lead the Seahwaks to the Championship game in the NFC. Is there a lesson to be learned from this?
I would argue that there is. The franchises in the NFL are slowly but surely learning that when a player is "athletic" or "mobile" as they insist on saying, but also has creativity, quick thinking, an eye for a pass, he becomes a player a level above his opposition who have been trained to remain static, and at times predictable. Plonking that player down in a different position because he's "athletic" makes no sense for the player or the team.
While the differences between footballing cultures all around the world are not huge, in most places the emphasis when a child picks up a football to start playing is not on accurately playing a long ball into the channels and getting through their defensive workload, it's on being inventive, creative, having fun, and showing individual skill. Perhaps these assets are coached out of players in Europe, and with centres of excellence and academies hoovering up players at a younger and younger age, we may have seen the last of the Okochas or Weahs of this world, until one outstanding candidate breaks the mould for the rest of those who follow behind him. So, where have all the showmen gone?
