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00:00Welcome back to another episode of Five Aside on BN Sports.
00:19This week, we're having an extremely topical debate about African football, all things African football.
00:25The first question is, Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba have been cemented as the best African players of all time.
00:31We know this, but there's a certain Egyptian that's following in their footsteps.
00:36So the question is, what does Mo Salah have to do to get on their level?
00:41Kendrick, what do you think?
00:42She's start with Kendrick.
00:44The thing, I don't know, a lot of people aren't going to like this.
00:48But the thing that comes to my mind first is like all the things that both of these players have done for their countries, right?
00:54So when you think about Drogba, you think about everything that he did for Ivory Coast.
00:59You think about him stopping a civil war in his country.
01:03When you think about Eto'o, you think about him going back to take on a leadership role for Cameroon in the Footballing Federation.
01:10And obviously, like, that's a little bit more of like a post-career thing.
01:14But like when I think of Salah, he's in his prime right now.
01:17I just think about his goals.
01:18I need to, in order for him to surpass them in my mind, I feel like there needs to be something that like he did or like a moment where it's like, okay, he did XYZ for his country in a way that those legends did.
01:29Well, I think that honestly, he's probably already at their level.
01:36And speaking of things that he's done for their country, if you look up some of the things that he's done for Egypt, the impact he's had is he's one of the most impactful people in low-key Egyptian history.
01:45And we've heard stories from like our guy, Kareem Abdul, talking about what he means to that community, how he'll randomly send money to cover people's medical bills, people who have never met him before, how random people who are sitting in poverty look at Mohamed Salah for a financial opportunity to be able to have coverage.
02:02That's how much he supports this country.
02:04And on the pitch, he has three Premier League golden boots.
02:07To get the exact stats, as of today, 187 goals and 304 Premier League appearances and 87 assists.
02:15Wait, wait, wait. It's evergreen.
02:16Hmm?
02:17It's evergreen.
02:18Oh.
02:19So, you can just...
02:20Almost 200 goals. Yeah.
02:21Okay.
02:22And to get just straight to the football pitch, in a row...
02:25Okay.
02:25To get straight to the football pitch, he has about 200 Premier League goals.
02:28I liked and on the pitch.
02:29Huh?
02:29That was perfect.
02:29Okay.
02:29And on the pitch, I mean, the stats and the play speaks for itself.
02:34Three-time Premier League golden boot winner, around 200 goals and 90 assists.
02:37Which are better stats than DDA Drogba already.
02:39The only thing I think he's missing, if we're talking purely footballing, is winning an AFCON for Egypt, who is one of the most successful...
02:46Excuse me.
02:47Who is the most successful AFCON country.
02:49So, they haven't won it with him at the team just yet.
02:52I think that's also because he's not in their golden era, so the teammates around him aren't as good.
02:56But with the likes of Marmoush next to him, I do think the chances are better and the pressure is on to finally get that trophy.
03:02So, if he wins an AFCON with Egypt, he might genuinely already, in that moment, be the best player of African history.
03:10There's obviously some debates.
03:11You got George Weah, only one with a Ballon d'Or.
03:14Some people think Salah could have gotten a Ballon d'Or, right?
03:16Salah.
03:16You have...
03:17Salah also doesn't have a treble.
03:19A treble.
03:20True.
03:20I agree.
03:21The back-to-back troubles Eto'o has makes that...
03:23It's nasty.
03:23It is.
03:24But if you think about longevity of career, too, I think that puts Salah, if he gets an AFCON with Egypt, potentially past Eto'.
03:31And I would say definitely past Drogba, personally.
03:33And he has the Champions League to go with it, as well.
03:35So, that kind of brings me to my next question, which we've put on the docket.
03:45People committing to playing for national teams.
03:47Of course, players like Salah, Marmoush, have always had that one mindset for playing for a country like Egypt.
03:51That's where they're from, that's where they were born, and that's who they want to represent.
03:55However, there is talk about a lot of African nationals who maybe were born in France, or born in England, or born in the Netherlands,
04:01who wait until they're maybe 26, or 27, or 28, to then commit to play for their African national team.
04:07The question is, for us, as members of the diaspora on this podcast, how do we feel about that?
04:12Because it's been a lot of conversation regarding players choosing to play for African teams late.
04:16Josh, I'll start with you.
04:17How do you feel about it?
04:17For sure, for sure.
04:18I mean, listen, at the end of the day, intent is something that is always valued.
04:22You know, you wouldn't want to be your crush's second choice.
04:25You know what I mean?
04:27So, therefore, I hope that my crush picks me first.
04:30You know what I mean?
04:31In the same way, you would hope that footballers choose and go for the nations that they feel most aligned with,
04:37and they see just more, I guess, connection to.
04:40Some of these players would say at first, maybe, you know, they were looking to have a track,
04:42whether it be in England, you know, France, U.S., these countries.
04:46But, really, the fact is, you know, you're your parents' kids as well.
04:49And so, it's always beautiful when you see people come around.
04:52And, honestly, at any point in their life, realize, like, there's value in being able to play for back home.
04:58Gabe, how do you feel about it?
04:59Yeah, I agree that you don't want to be the second choice.
05:02But, I do think there's instances where maybe they made the realization late that, no,
05:06I genuinely do want to play for this diaspora country that is of my parents' heritage.
05:10So, they do make that realization late.
05:12I think there still is value in it.
05:14The like of Ninyaki Williams playing for your team, Ghana.
05:16Like, I don't think that's hurt to Ghana.
05:18But, I do think, in general, agree that it should be your first choice.
05:22But, if they do come around late, I don't see that as a negativity,
05:25as long as they bring the same passion as the kids who did choose it as their first choice.
05:29And, then, again, the thing that comes up for discussion is, okay, does that not prevent,
05:36but, you know, create a situation in which the local leagues and the local players who are on the way up
05:41is a, you know, a blocker in that sense, you know?
05:45That's a really good point, and it shows the nuance of this discussion.
05:48But, I think there are also examples of countries that have flourished with majority local talent.
05:53So, if we look at South Africa right now, and they're pushed to, like, qualify for the World Cup,
05:58they're mostly made up of players who play in a domestic league,
06:01and yet, they're on top of teams from around the diaspora, like Nigeria,
06:06who currently are filled with players who play outside of the country.
06:10And so, there's always going to be, I don't know how to fucking finish this.
06:15There's always going to be people from the diaspora coming in, you're saying?
06:18There's always going to be players who...
06:20Say a balance is needed.
06:21Yeah, I would say it's between the two.
06:22So, basically, like, there needs to be balance, and there's always going to be opportunities
06:27for players domestically to shine and put on for their country.
06:31Speaking of people coming from abroad and playing for a national team,
06:34the other conversation, Kendrick, I want to ask you first about this,
06:36is about coaches coming from abroad and coaching national teams that they are not nationals of.
06:41A country like Cameroon right now has a Belgian coach.
06:44In the past, there have been countries that have had French coaches.
06:46Saudi Arabia, for example, in the World Cup, had a French coach.
06:50How do you feel about that, specifically in the context of African football?
06:53And what do you think needs to happen, perhaps, to change this?
06:56Or do you think it's something that should be changed at all?
06:58I do think it's something that should be changed.
07:00I think, historically, the inclusion of, like, non-African coaches representing
07:06or coaching African teams has been associated with a distrust
07:09for, like, the acumen and, like, football IQ of coaches that are from the continent
07:16trying to coach their local teams.
07:18And I think, to go along with that, we've seen a lot of success
07:21when teams put faith in coaches from their home country.
07:25Morocco, obviously, being the most recent example, hiring Waleed Raghuwi.
07:31Fuck.
07:31Raghuagwi?
07:33Waleed Raghuagwi.
07:35Regragi.
07:36Waleed Raghuagwi, who carried them.
07:40Fuck.
07:41Waleed, just say Waleed.
07:42Yeah.
07:43Yeah.
07:43Morocco being the most recent example, bringing back their head coach, Waleed,
07:48who has carried them to the semifinals in the World Cup in 2022.
07:52And so we see that there's a formula when you trust the coaches from your home country,
07:56and I think more countries should do it.
07:58One of my favorite stories in AFCON history is what happened with Ivory Coast last AFCON
08:02when they started the tournament with a foreign coach, ended the tournament with that coach's interim.
08:08His last name is Faye, so every coach's coach currently is Faye,
08:11and he managed to take them all the way to the final.
08:13It's a story of someone who's from the country, who was part of the coaching staff,
08:16who is Ivorian, who understood how to kind of motivate a team at their lowest point
08:20because he could relate with the players in a way that perhaps someone who was a foreigner couldn't.
08:23As the host nation specifically, too, which is a different type of intensity.
08:27And so I think that example is what I would present to the table for anyone who would argue
08:31against the fact that it's good to have people from your country coaching your players
08:34because there's a certain relatability that someone from your country can have with you.
08:38I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that people from outside of the country aren't competent.
08:42I just think when you're coaching a national team, you have so few games,
08:45it becomes so little less about tactics and so much more about being able to motivate a group of people
08:49around a country and around a flag.
08:51It's always better to have someone from that place than not.
08:53So that would be my simple argument for why I think you should kind of invest in people from your country
08:58than people who aren't from it.
09:00And if you look across the world, from World Cups to AFCON, so Copa America, et cetera, et cetera,
09:06it's likely a coach from that country winning the trophy in the end.
09:08Yes, absolutely.
09:09Anyway, great segue because speaking about countries from across the world,
09:12the last question that I have for you guys is one that doesn't get brought up enough, I think.
09:17We're in a World Cup cycle.
09:18We're speaking about teams qualifying for World Cup more and more and more.
09:21Africa, with its 52 countries, only has nine guaranteed spots.
09:25Kendrick, is that enough?
09:29We need to talk about the numbers.
09:31What are the comparisons?
09:32Let me get them for you.
09:33To give some context, Africa gets nine spots, Asia gets eight, Europe gets 16,
09:38North Central America and the Caribbean, so CONCACAF gets six spots,
09:41three for the host, three for qualification.
09:42South America, Comiball gets six spots, Oceania gets one spot,
09:46and there are two additional spots for intercontinental playoff.
09:50It's a disgrace, man.
09:52You know, honestly, it reminds me of the reality of the most maps that we look at.
09:56The size of the continent is not appropriate at all.
10:01That shit is a fact.
10:03Maybe I violated it.
10:04No, it's true, it's true.
10:05No, it's true because that should be stretched in other directions to make the West look bigger.
10:09Bro, like the continent is bigger than a lot of this shit.
10:11I don't know if I could talk like this.
10:13No, definitely not.
10:14Yeah, cool.
10:15That's what it reminds me of, generally speaking.
10:17Yeah.
10:19I think...
10:20You got to talk.
10:20Oh, yeah.
10:21Well, because you did...
10:22Because it has to go to you now.
10:24Okay.
10:24All right.
10:27Yeah, I think at the end of the day, it should have been balanced,
10:31more balanced a long time ago.
10:32Personally, I think that every continent should have equal representation.
10:35I think that's the only way to make it just fair from the jump that
10:39if every continent has an equal chance at winning the World Cup,
10:43because if you look at the history of the World Cup,
10:45most of the winners come from Europe,
10:47and it's because at the end of the day, they have more representation.
10:51I think, first off, I'm actually going to say I'm happy it jumped to nine this time
10:55for an expanded format of 48 teams,
10:58because in the previous 32-team format, there was only five spots for Africa,
11:01which that, to me, is a complete disgrace.
11:03That is unbelievably competitive to have that few spots for the World Cup,
11:07but the fact that they didn't double the amount of total World Cup teams,
11:11but almost doubled the amount of African teams in the World Cup,
11:14I think that is actually a beneficial thing,
11:17and I think that now we're getting closer towards a more equal representation.
11:20So that jump from five to nine, I think, is actually huge,
11:22and we're going to see, hopefully, some new countries in the World Cup, too.
11:25What I will add is that perhaps a potential solution,
11:27as we get better with travel and being able to move from one place to another
11:30quicker and quicker, is to perhaps have qualifiers be global
11:32instead of doing qualifiers within the Confederation,
11:35or just open it up.
11:36Anyway, we'll end the episode like that.
11:38Guys, have a good one.
11:39Thank you for tuning in for Five Aside,
11:41and we'll see you guys next week.
11:42Bye.
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