The Africanisation of Defensive Midfield

It all started with Patrick Vieira- He came from Senegal, he plays for Ars-e-nul- was the inventive Highbury anthem. He also gave Giggsy the ball, and Arsenal won…anyway. One of the lesser-spoken stories of the Premiership over the last few years has been the protracted Africanisation of the defensive midfield. Let me explain….

First there’s the ones you will know. Chelsea have two: Michael Essien (from Ghana) and Makalele (French but born in Zaire). Liverpool have got Mohamed Sissoko (Mali), and Arsenal have got Vassikiri Abou Diaby (French but of Malian descent).

Then there’s the other decent ones. Abdoulaye Faye (Senegal) at Bolton, Papa Boupa Diop (Senegal) at Fulham, and George Boateng (Dutch but born in Ghana).

The there’s the ones you’ve probably forgotten about. Aliou Cisse (Senegal) at Pompey, Eric Djemba Djemba (Cameroon) at Villa and Amdy Faye (Senegal) at Newcastle.

Then there’s the ones you probably don’t care about. Christian Bassila (Congo) at Sunderland, and Mohamed’s little brother Ibrahim Sissoko (Mali) at West Brom.

Finally there’s the one’s who are ‘destined’ for the Premiership, now that all the cool kids are doing it. Mahamadou Diarra (Mali-right) at Lyon is wanted by Chelsea and Man Utd, Kolo’s little brother Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast) at Olymiakos has been linked to a number of Premiership clubs, Didier Zokora (Ivory Coast) at St Ettiene who is being heavily sniffed around, and Younes Kaboul (Morocco) at Auxerre.

So, the theme is clear; if you want a defensive midfielder-go African. In fact, go West African, pretty much every player I’ve mentioned is derived of West African countries. 12 out of the 20 Premiership teams have already got one, and there are more on the way.



In other news, I sat on my phone for about half an hour yesterday and now I have Girls Aloud as my ring-tone and can’t get rid of it.