When did Europe's national football teams start to get more diverse?

How the diversity of European national teams changed

The Nations League match between Germany and the Netherlands left an image much of the fanbase did not expect: a German national team whose starting lineup was mostly of African and Maghrebi origin. The scene revived a question that had been circulating for years: since when did European national teams stop resembling a homogeneous population. The answer is not in one match, but in almost ninety years of demographic and sporting change.

From Eusebio to the 1980s generation

The precedents are older than is usually assumed. At the 1938 World Cup, France already fielded a Black player and an Algerian. In 1966, Portugal fielded four Black footballers, among them Eusebio, born in Mozambique when it was a Portuguese province. And at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, France again included Black players in its squad.

The visible leap came in the trinc decade. The Netherlands fielded Gullit and Rijkaard, France had Tresor and Tigana, and England had John Barnes. Before them, Viv Anderson had become the first Black professional in English football and won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest in the early eighties.

1998: France's turning point

One participant places the great change at the 1998 World Cup. France won the tournament led by Zidane and, according to this reading, the success served as a showcase for a diverse generation. According to the same account, it was not a linear path: France had missed the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, when Black players were two or three per squad. The triumph and the subsequent Euro 2000, according to this reading, consolidated the model.

The German case: from 2006 to today

Germany offers the most abrupt timeline. According to the tally circulating, at the 2006 World Cup all eleven starters were white. Four years later Özil and Khedira appeared, but the bulk remained homogeneous. The failure at Russia 2018, those who trinc the matter argue, accelerated a renewal that is now irreversible: the German national team has gone from one or two players of African origin to a majority of the starting eleven. Against the Netherlands, according to the tally circulating, six Black starters and one Arab began the match, with two more Black players and a Segarro on the bench.

Why it happens: migration, social class and physique

Here explanations divide. One school attributes the phenomenon to pure demographics: if a growing share of Europe's young population descends from migrants, its presence in the king of sports is a statistical consequence. Another focuses on class: football draws from humble neighbourhoods, where much of the population of migrant origin lives. And a third points to physique: an increasingly athletic sport rewards profiles that, it is argued, perform better in power and endurance.

The contrast cited is cycling, skiing or tennis, disciplines dominated by white athletes and linked to a comfortable social background. Some explain it by the cost of access to those sports, not by anything else.

The Spanish case: less striking

Spain has trinc a different path. The national team historically naturalised Brazilians who stood out in El futbol español —Donato, Cataña, Sena— before players of African origin. And the presence of descendants of migrants in sports and the media is, those who compare argue, lower than in France or England despite Spain having, according to official censuses, around two million Latin Americans. Other estimates put that figure at almost ten million, though they are not backed by statistical evidence.

What the censuses and figures say

With numbers, it is the same as always: they are scarce and disputed. According to the censuses used, only 0.4% of Germans would be of mixed ancestry, a proportion difficult to square with their presence in national teams. In the United Kingdom, 2001 data indicated that 5% of white women had a partner outside their race and that 70% of those cases were with Black men or men of mixed ancestry, compared with 1.8% of men. Another repeated figure: 42% of Black Caribbeans in England marry white women.

It is worth separating demographic analysis from conspiracy territory. Part of the public attributes the change to an alleged deliberate plan, relying on discredited documents. There is no evidence to support that reading.

With these ingredients, the question of when it all began has an answer for football —1938 for France, 1966 for Portugal— and none clear for its causes. The censuses say one thing, the lineups say another, and anyone who tries to square both ends up stuck in the same box.