LEAGUE Footballers with denomination of origin: from New York to Navares de Enmedio

Conrado Valle

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Yunus Musah He was born on November 29, 2002 in New York, although he was there by chance. His Ghanaian parents were visiting a relative in the Big Apple when Musah said there I'm going. 19 days earlier, in a refugee camp in Miconge (Angola), Sofia, who arrived there from the Republic of Congo with Celestino and her four children, gave birth to Eduardo Camavinga. Mat ryan came into the world 18,000 kilometers from Anoeta, in Plumpton, an hour from Sydney. AND Of fruits He did it in Navares de En medio, a Segovian town that is a reflection of the so-called emptied Spain: 91 neighbors.

La Liga is the story of its 471 protagonists, which are the players registered with first team numbers (from 1 to 25). There are those who are in the elite without ever leaving home, like Pau Torres, who was born, raised and triumphed in his native Vila-real. Many others, like Kang-in Lee or Antonie Griezmann, had to leave Incheon (South Korea) and Macon (France) to visit the quarries of Valencia and Real Sociedad respectively.

Every footballer can tell his adventure to the elite. Like swedish Guidetti, that for four years he kicked a ball in Nairobi (Kenya), because his father was stationed there. OR Randy Nteka, that in 2017 he was going to leave football when he received a call from a childhood friend from Paris to try the Madrid preferred at Betis San Isidro and today he breaks it at Rayo. OR Philip, who at age 14 was playing on a team for a tractor company.

The squads of the 20 clubs in this First Division are made up of footballers born in the five continents. Specific, 54 countries. Beyond those born in Spain, the countries with the most representatives are Argentina (30), France (26, among them Foulquier and Lemar, who came to the world in Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory), Brazil (16), Uruguay (12) and Serbia (10). There are, like Yunus Musah, who were born in a country, although they soon changed residence and nationality. It is the case of Bond, who was born in Montreal. although at the age of 7 she moved to Morocco, her parents' country of origin. OR Rakitic, who was born in Möhlin (Switzerland), to where his parents emigrated after the death of General Tito, although the sevilista today over the years decided to defend the Croatian shirt.

Europe is the continent with the most countries represented (28) and also footballers (91). It is followed by America (14 countries, 86 footballers), Africa (11 countries, 20 footballers), Asia (Kang-in Lee, Korea, and Take Kubo, Japan) and Oceania (Mat Ryan, Australia). The South American countries with the longest soccer tradition are the ones that most nurture Spanish soccer with talent (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia), while in Europe the opposite happens. Except from FranceOf the other three countries with major leagues, the presence of players is testimonial. A) Yes, Germany It only has ‘four’ representatives (Kroos, Ter Stegen, Mustafi… and Joselu, who was born and lived up to four years in Stuttgart), two from United Kingdom (Trippier, England, and Bale, Wales) and one of Italy (Cristiano Piccini).

Of the 471 professional footballers in this league, 271 were born in Spain. The number of clubs in each autonomous community that are active in the highest category has its influence on the denomination of origin of the players (three Basques, four Valencians, four Andalusians, four Madrid and one Galician, Navarrese and Balearic). But an analysis of the map of the players' birthplaces leaves other conclusions. For example, the reasonable similarities it has with the demographic and economic maps of the country.

The communities with the most soccer players in Primera are: Catalonia (41), Andalusia (39), the Basque Country (37), the Valencian Community (36) and Madrid (28). By provinces, the parallelism is even more evident: Barcelona (30), Madrid (28), Valencia (21), Navarra (16) and Guipúzcoa (19) are the ones that saw the birth of the most La Liga players, while those that They do not have any representative are Teruel, Huesca, Orense, León, Soria, Zamora, Salamanca and Granada (the only one with a team in First).

“Talent and will is the main thing to reach the elite, although evidently the personal circumstances of each one also influence”, comments one of the scouts of the Academy of the Valencia, the second through which more soccer players of the League passed in the youth category (22 players), being the quarry of the Real Madrid the one with the most distributed among the 20 First Clubs (26). The farmhouse Today it has 21 players in the elite, while the quarry of the Villarreal (17). Ahtletic (18), Real society (17) and Osasuna (12) maintain the northern tradition, where the technicians of their quarries and associated clubs star in intense recruitment duels.

They would go around the world adding up the kilometers traveled by the kids and their families each week to go to train or play. Like the ones that happened Gayà in the car with his father and doing his homework from Pedreguer to Valencia (200 kilometers every four days). Or the 5,000 pesetas that he gave each week to Joaquin Sanchez his uncle el Chino to get the train ticket for the journey from Puerto de Santa María to Seville. Or the nights that all those who had to stay in a residence spent far from home. What Luis Rioja, who went from Las Cabezas de San Juan to Madrid; Manu Garcia, that from Oviedo he went to Manchester; or Trigueros, who from his native Talavera de la Reina went to La Masía for the first time without success and ended up with 17 years finding his place in Vila-real.

Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Pamplona, ​​Valencia, San Sebastián and Zaragoza are the Spanish cities with the most footballers in the current First Division. Through the streets where they went unnoticed, where they were one of all the kids their age, the Piqué, Carlos Soler, Nacho Fernández, Koke, Raúl García or Zaldúa are quickly identified today. But there are others who were known to all their neighbors since they were children, where they proudly say that the “son of Lidia” plays for Espanyol (Diego Lopez, Paradela, Lugo, 1820 inhabitants), the “grandson of Doleres and Antonio and Nati and José Antonio” does it at the Atletic de Bilbao (From Marcos, Laguardia, 1540 inhabitants) or that Saul Garcia He has returned to Vioña (1920 inhabitants) for Christmas to participate in the Vimenor Campus, the team of the town in which he was formed.

The emptied Spain has in Of fruits (Navares de Enmedio, 91 inhabitants) his main reference, a Real Madrid youth squad who does not forget the day his aunt from Madrid brought him his first boots, a black Predator. It is also an icon Pere Pons in Sant Martí Vell (251), where in 2017 he was a preacher of the festivities of his town. Fidel, today in Elche, was named when he debuted with Recreativo de Huelva, the prodigal son of La Dehesa de Riotinto (226 inhabitants). There is the case of Moncayola, who was born in Pamplona, ​​although he grew up and lived in the Garinoian (479 inhabitants). Or the Gumbau (Campllonch, 535), Ainhen Munoz (Etxauri, 622) and Pedraza (San Sebastián de la Ballesteros, 814). All are the pride of their home towns, places with less than a thousand inhabitants, where in winter there are not even enough children to make two teams of eleven and yet they can boast of having one of their own in the First Division.