I Know I'm A Bit Late On This But......
I know I'm a bit late on this, but watching the rugby today made me think about Manuel Almunia, and his "hope" to play for England. It all started with the cricket. Back in the 80's we had Allan Lamb and Robin Smith playing for England, even though they were both born and raised in South Africa. Even now, we've got Kevin Pieterson playing, and all English hopes seem to rest on him. In athletics we had Zola Budd, again representing England, setting commonwealth and world records, and the adoration of the English press and public, even though she was South African. Back to rugby, the All Blacks have been doing it for years. Taking the best of the Samoans, Fijians, and Pacific islanders and persuading them to represent New Zealand. Even England are not immune to this with Mike Catt, and now Lesley Vainikolo pulling on the white shirts of England. Of course, in football, this has already happened. As we all remember, Jack Charlton used the parentage rule to great effect when manager of Ireland – Tony Cascarino, John Aldridge, Andy Townsend, the list goes on and on. All apart from Vainikolo have used parentage to further their career. The cricketers could not represent South Africa because of the apartheid regime, similarly so did Budd. The All Blacks can use the lure of playing for the best rugby team in the world (in their, and the medias eyes anyway) rather than play for Fiji, and get no honours in the game. The Irish lads chose the Republic beacuse they knew they would never get into the England team. Vainikolo is different. After coming over to Bradford from Australia in 2002, he has been able to apply for English citizenship under the 5 year residency rule – the same bit of legislation that Almunia is wanting to use. However, that is where the similarities end. Vainikolo is good enough to play for his home country of Tonga, would still walk into the All Blacks team because of parentage (in fact, while playing Rugby League, he played 12 times, scoring 14 tries) but he has chosen to play for England. He’s a world class player. Almunia is not. And that, and that alone, is why he should never play for England, not because he’s Spanish. However, the precedent has been set, so how long will it really be until we get a “foreigner” playing for England at football? We’ve already had two foreign coaches - my guess is, not too long at all.
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