Rising Stars and Crescents: Middle Eastern Ancestry and English Football

Ever since I first watched Egypt win the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations, I wondered how it could have happened. When I watched them repeat the feat this past year in Ghana, my surprise was replaced by great intrigue.

I certainly didn't claim to be an expert on African football, but it wasn't what I expected.

Quality players like Didier Drogba, Stephen Appiah, Samuel Eto'o, Yakubu, and Michael Essien were found amongst the other teams competing. Meanwhile, the only player in the Egyptian squad readily recognizable to fans of the English league would have been Mido.

Mido, however, had been relatively inconsistent at both Tottenham and Middlesbrough during his spells there.

Following the 2006 win, I thought it was possibly a one-off. After their repeat win this year, my doubts about the quality talent that Islamic countries are capable of producing all but went away.

I just wondered why these players hadn't been making their way to England yet. After all, if the Premier League is the so-called "greatest league in the world," how could the best players in north Africa (or the Middle East) not be playing there?

Of the 23 squad members for Egypt in 2006, only two were plying their trade outside of the Middle East. In 2008, the number had only increased to three.

Following Egypt's wins, however, other leagues began to take notice. Despite that many of these players in Middle Eastern countries play in supposedly "weak" or "inferior" leagues, there was legitimate talent being produced in these countries.

Or, if they weren't being trained in Islamic countries, their ancestry was certainly heavily connected to there.

In England, we had already begun to see some of it through Mido and Blackburn's Tugay. But others have slowly begun to appear, including Hossam Ghaly (Tottenham), Mohamed Shawky (Middlesbrough), and Ali Al Habsi (Bolton).

Other players, such as Middlesbrough's Tuncay Sanli, Wigan's Amr Zaki, and Portsmouth's Nadir Belhadj are proving that the pedigree of these players deserves more than bit parts in the Premier League.

Having ancestry in these Islamic countries is developing into more than just riding in on the coat-tails of success from Zinedine Zidane, whose own Algerian ancestry was oft-forgotten.

The success of Amr Zaki in particular has been a great boost to players with ancestry in Islamic countries, as his start to life in the Premier League with Wigan Athletic has been nothing short of sensational. It is not at all surprising that he is already being linked with a move to a "bigger club" in England and elsewhere in the near future.

Once upon a time, sub-Saharan African players plying their trade in England were looked down upon as not being the quality that the league deserved. It has been some time since we've heard these comments.

I had already seen a number of quality African players at Portsmouth, and I knew that their was immense quality coming from the continent. I knew that these players were going to play a huge part in English football in the future.

Enter Drogba, Adebayor, Essien, Sulley Muntari, Soloman Kalou, and many others.

Now, I am confident in saying that in the coming seasons, we will be seeing a prominent contingent of Middle Eastern and North African players crossing the channel.

And I believe that such players arriving in England (rather than in France or in Germany) will only be beneficial for the league as a whole.

I am hopeful that the Premier League will continue to see players the quality of Zaki coming to its shore.