The upcoming World Cup will feature four sets of brothers competing for different countries, reflecting migration’s impact on football.
French-born Desire Doue, a Paris Saint-Germain starlet, plays for France; his older brother Guela, an overlapping fullback, represents Ivory Coast, his father’s country.
The Williams brothers Inaki and Nico are both Basque-born, and the 23-year-old Nico was player of the match when Spain beat England in the European Championship final two years ago.
Older brother Inaki, 32 next week, played once for Spain in a friendly before switching to Ghana, his parents’ country.
Ghana’s squad includes Dutch-born defender Derrick Luckassen, 30, an injury replacement, joining half-brother Brian Brobbey, 24.
Brobbey is a back-up striker for the Netherlands, going into the tournament in Canada, Mexico, and the United States on the back of a strong second half of the Premier League season with Sunderland. They share the same mother but have different fathers.
Australia selected Scottish-born center-back Harry Souttar, 27, while his older brother John plays for Scotland. Born in Aberdeen, Harry switched allegiance seven years ago to Australia, his mother’s country, after junior caps for the Scots.
No direct sibling matchups are scheduled early. Last week, Desire watched Guela score the opener in Ivory Coast’s 2-1 friendly win over France.
BROTHERS TEASED BEFORE THE MATCH
“Sure, we teased each other a bit before the match,” Guela told reporters afterwards. “In the end, we’re family and we’re very happy for each other.”
The two brothers, born in Angers in northwestern France, took their first steps together at Stade Rennais, but Guela, who is three years older, was overshadowed by his younger brother’s prodigious talent, which has seen him move to PSG and win back-to-back Champions League honours.
Migration to Europe over the last decades has opened a major pool of talent for African national teams who dip into the diaspora ranks for players. World Cup participants like Algeria, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia have more European-born players in their 26-man squad than those born at home.
There has been only one case of siblings squaring off against each other at the World Cup, and it happened in back-to-back tournaments.
Jerome Boateng was at the back for Germany against his older half-brother Kevin Prince, who suited up for Ghana, in a 1-0 win for the Germans in Johannesburg.
Four years later, the pair were at opposite ends again in Fortaleza when the group game ended 2-2.
“Of course, it was something special, but somehow it was also different four years later,” said Jerome Boateng.
“In 2010, it was truly something new, something extraordinary. I don’t want to say it’s become commonplace – because a World Cup is never commonplace. But we also played against each other quite a few times in the Bundesliga,” he added.
