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| National Treasure: Germany's talented players |
Earlier last week, State of the Game released statistics which underpinned that of the 500-plus registered players in the Premier League, less than 1/3 are English. Just 32.36% of the players in the Premier League are English - an atrocious figure all round for English football. The FA only need to look as far as Scotland. Although they have the lesser talent, the Scottish Premier League houses a 57.19% (the season thus far) of Scottish players [1]. When taking a look at the European powerhouse of Germany, the Bundesliga is well over 50%, which comes to no surprise, given their largely overwhelming performances at the last four World and Continental championships [2]. Moreover, in Spain, just under 40% of the La Liga's total number of players are foreign [3]. However, just looking at the statistics does not make a difference...
...Many strategies need to be put into place in order to squeeze the best out of the English youngsters. Greg Dyke's FA commission's first eight members were announced earlier this week, some of which came to the criticism of Gary Lineker who claimed that they were "pointless", although the image cannot completely be dismal. Glenn Hoddle, who is regarded to be one of England's finest talents of all time and manager of the Three Lions at the 1998 World Cup in France, has a realistic outlook on England's prospects over the next decade. Speaking to BBC Sport, Hoddle said that the Three Lions do not have a chance of victory at next year's World Cup in Brazil, but when referring to Dyke's aim of winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder said "I would hope to say that we could expect to get some success a little bit earlier than that". And when he says "earlier", he is referring to the 2016 UEFA European Championships in France.
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| England Expects: Greg Dyke is the man with the plan |
The Premier League supports Dyke's master plan, although they had rejected the opportunity to have an official representative on the board. Nevertheless, a bullish Dyke wants the FA to have links between Premier League clubs. A similar example took place in Germany after a disappointing Euro 2004 campaign. Links were made with Bundesliga clubs and since then Die Mannschaft have been fairly successful at the last two World Cups, especially in 2010 in South Africa. Jurgen Klinsmann and current manager Joachim Low were in the driving seat of this project, deciding to play predominantly attack-minded football. Like the Germans, it will take time for England to reach at least the semi-final stage of a major international tournament, but the talent is certainly there. Jack Wilshere, Ross Barkley, Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker, Tom Cleverley, Daniel Sturridge and many others hold the key for future success - it's their choice if they wish to use it or not.
But the criticism does not end there. Harry Redknapp also resented the lack of street football being played by children nowadays. Speaking from his perspective, Redknapp said that his grandchildren are certainly not playing football. Instead they "sit there play on their little games they've got". Taking this into account, more children are swapping playing football outside for FIFA's officially licensed video games, which they play on their games consoles. Should there be a successful campaign to promote street football on an extensive scale, then the likelihood of prospective footballers maximising their potential will increase.
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PICTURES:
German players celebrating - http://thesoccerplanet.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/192697hp2.jpg
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