The weight of the Three Lions: Football, colonialism, diaspora

When England takes on Ghana, a former British colony, there is something you should pay attention to. Watch Kobbie Boateng Mainoo, one of the most talented young players in all of football, then watch Brandon Thomas-Asante, Jerome Opoku and Antoine Semenyo. All four of these young men share very similar backgrounds and stories. All four born in England, socially and culturally shaped by English football, all with Ghanaian heritage. Yet only Kobbie Mainoo plays for England, while the others play for Ghana. Things like this make me question my allegiances. They make me wonder who I should truly root for. But we will get to that. This is for the keep-sports-out-of-politics crowd: Many of England’s 26 players are sons or grandsons of people from Caribbean and African countries. Most of those countries are former colonies of the British Empire. Football has never been just a game. It has always been a mirror. Research from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford has revealed that nearly a quarter of the 1,248 players selected for national teams at the 2026 World Cup were born in a different country than the one they represent, and 23.6 percent of players will represent a country other than the one they were born in. Twenty years ago, at the 2006 World Cup, that number was less than 9 percent. FIFA’s eligibility rules have changed and that has expanded the talent pools. You are seeing talented players raised in some of Europe’s finest academies come home. …