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On June 11, the world will turn its eyes to South Africa to watch 32 nations compete in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Although the football (or soccer, as we call it) knowledge of most Americans is derived entirely from reading tabloid headlines about Posh Spice and having to watch games played by 10-year-old girls who refuse to pass the ball, this World Cup promises to be exciting for even the most casual fan, with plenty of great soccer personalities on display.
The 32 teams are split into eight groups of four, with the two best teams from each group advancing to the second round. Many favor Spain to win the tournament, partially because Spain is coming off a 2008 European championship and professional soccer analysis always has a certain European/Brazilian myopia, for better or worse. Jesus Navas will be a wild card for Spain, if he even makes it to South Africa. This talented and nervy midfielder suffers from seizures, anxiety attacks, and chronic homesickness so bad that he has been known to leave training camps located too far from his native Seville. These problems caused him to quit international competition in 2005, and he was only coaxed to rejoin the national team this past fall. In Group H with Spain is Switzerland, Honduras, and Chile. Twenty-two-year-old Chilean defensive midfielder Gary Medel could make his mark with a goal or two in this World Cup, but the youngster has had to grow up quickly to deal with a string of tabloid-type scandals, including a major car accident and having an 18 year-old girl inexplicably fall to her death from his balcony in Santiago. Honduran standout Wilson Palacios and younger brother Johnny have dealt with similarly macabre problems—in 2007, their brother was kidnapped for ransom and murdered (unfortunately this sort of violence is not unheard of for Latin American and African players who make well-publicized salaries). Honduras is so soccer mad, to the point that American defender Jonathan Bornstein—an unknown in the United States—has become something of a national hero in Honduras for scoring a goal in an unremarkable tie against Costa Rica last October that helped Honduras qualify for the World Cup.
Jesus Navas
Hopefully Bornstein won’t have trouble with his diet in South Africa. He eats a foot-long turkey sandwich from Subway before every game, and no Subway restaurants exist in northwestern Rustenburg, where the United States plays its first match against powerhouse England. On the savannah, Rustenburg is well situated for outdoor activities that should be familiar to Americans who follow soccer (mostly fit West Coasters) and utterly bewildering to British soccer hooligans. Bornstein is not the only American player with idiosyncrasies; goalie Tim Howard suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome. And although it’s uncommon for American soccer players to rise from poverty, Clint Dempsey grew up in a trailer park in Nagodoches, Texas. Local Latin American immigrants taught him the sport. More typical of American soccer players is midfielder Michael Bradley. His father coached Princeton’s men’s team from 1984 to 1995, and he just happens to be the current coach of the U.S. men’s team. In Group C with the United States is England, Algeria, and Slovenia. One thing to remember about England: try not to sound stupid during the World Cup by mentioning David Beckham; he’s injured and isn’t playing.
Predictably, the English team is not without its own share of freakishness and bad behavior. Defender Jamie Carragher, who recently returned to international play after quitting the national team in 2007, was born with no navel. Midfielder Frank Lampard, one of the top ten paid players in the game, making about $17 million per year including endorsements, appeared briefly in a sex tape in 2000. He has also been known to let alcohol get the best of him. He received a ton of bad press for stripping naked, vomiting and hurling obscenities near tourists at a London airport hotel on September 12, 2001.
Some of the players on the Algerian team were actually born and raised in France and repatriated to join the Algerian national team, but one Algerian player who really is from Algeria is Lounes Gaouaoui. He is rumored to have the only surname in the world with seven consecutive vowels, but outside of spending the next 100 years riding New York City taxis, this seems impossible to prove. Players treating citizenship as a sort of free agency is common in international soccer, but in many cases this probably has more to say about European immigration than about the players themselves.
In a somewhat extreme example of “citizenship free agency,” North Korean forward Jong Tae-Se attempted to denounce his South Korean citizenship in order to join the North Korean team. Neither Korea formally recognizes the other as a country, so he wasn’t successful, but he was nonetheless able to finagle a North Korean passport, which was good enough for soccer governing body FIFA—his true citizenship is still in question. (Japan and South Korea were both reportedly annoyed that North Korea discovered the player first, as they both would have liked to have recruited him. He was born in Japan.)
Jong Tae-Se
Both Koreas are in the tournament, but they are unlikely to meet. In group G with North Korea is Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, and Portugal. Portuguese midfielder Ronaldo should need no introduction. Behind Beckham, he is the second-highest-paid player in the world, but don’t confuse him with Brazil’s Ronaldinho, who ranks fourth on the money list. Sandwiched between them at third is Brazil’s Kaka, who makes $25 million per year. These playful names for Brazilian and Portuguese stars are not only used because these men have achieved Madonna-like fame. Portuguese names include both the father’s and the mother’s name, making many names unacceptably long and nicknames inevitable.
Portugal plays North Korea in Cape Town on June 21, and the location of Green Point Stadium, located next to Cape Town’s picturesque oceanfront, might be enough to make the entire North Korean team want to defect. Green Point Stadium is one of five new stadiums built across South Africa for the World Cup, but it is the only one that has the advantage of being on the water in Cape Town. Cape Town is where people go to see and be eaten alive by monstrous great white sharks but at this time of year, Cape Town’s weather is better for sipping local wine than it is for surfing.
Along with Spain and Brazil, some cite Germany as a team to watch. In Group D with Germany is Australia, Serbia, and Ghana. Australia features Adam Federici, who suffered the classic Australian sports injury of falling down a well drunk during the 2004-2005 season, and 34-year-old Scott Chipperfield, who worked as a diesel mechanic and a school bus driver while playing as a semi-pro in Australia and who became something of a national hero for his clutch play for the “socceroos” in the 2006 World Cup and its run-up.
The Germany-Ghana game at Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium on June 23 should be interesting for Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boatang. Boatang, who is from Berlin but whose father is from Ghana, played for German youth teams but was cut from the national team in 2007 after proving that he could not possibly be German by repeatedly being late for team meetings. FIFA granted him the right to play for Ghana in early May, and he may play against his brother Jerome, a backup defender for Germany. Johannesburg is a broad, L.A.-like sprawl and known for its high crime rate, and Soccer City is in the Soweto Township area. The stadium, which is built to look like a traditional African clay pot, is striking for an older venue, but because of its location, World Cup organizers intend to see most fans drive and bus in from other areas of Johannesburg. The more centrally located Johannesburg stadium is Ellis Park, which is otherwise primarily used for rugby.
Kevin-Prince Boateng
South Africa will kick off the World Cup against Mexico at Soccer City, and the country will have its best face on for the World Cup. Of course the country has a well-known and scarred history which some of South Africa’s players grew up with on a daily basis. While living in the Westbury township of Johannesburg, winger Steven Pienaar was not allowed to sit on his family’s couch for fear that he would be shot through the window. South Africa’s white players, however, have stories that are more typical for crazy professional athletes. Goalie Rowen Fernandez is called “spider” because he keeps them as pets, and he was once hospitalized after being bitten by one of his lovelies.
Argentina will be worth watching, just to see how they do under their new coach. Former star, Diego Maradona, has ruled the squad with an iron fist, cutting experienced favorites in the name of team chemistry. Still on the team is Maradona’s son-in-law Sergio Agüero. One has to question Maradona’s judgment, allowing his daughter to marry a man who has his own name tattooed on his arm in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish. Argentina midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón had one of soccer’s worst citizenship controversies, when, after giving a boost to Italy’s Lazio, his agent was imprisoned for furnishing Verón with a fake Italian passport so that the team could get around its non-EU player quota.
Reigning World Cup champion Italy has had its own “citizenship free agency” issue. In May, ESPN Magazine declared Italy striker Giuseppe Rossi “America's Best Hope at the World Cup.” By playing for the national team, this Teaneck, New Jersey, native has done much better than Snooki and “The Situation” at showing his Italian pride. However, he was cut just several days shy of the start of the tournament. There is already speculation that Rossi may join the U.S. squad within the next year or two.
—David Dames