Jurrien Timber is probably the best right back in Europe right now.

And the Dutch had their colonialism too. They’ve had black players as long as I’ve been watching. Patrick Kluivert.

This post was edited on 10/6/25 at 6:46 pm

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Posted by dgnx6

Member since Feb 2006

86367 posts

Posted on 10/6/25 at 6:55 pm to TulsaSooner78

quote:
I fail to understand why this is so surprising. Do people have no knowledge of history? How is this any different than what OP posted: Look at all these proud Americans.

Imo that’s different.

I’m pretty sure all of our team USA basketball players were born in the US.

We had a guy born in the US who chose to play for Italy. That’s just how soccer is.

Under the German coach the national team recruited dudes born to like German mothers but US military fathers. So they grew up playing soccer in Europe but eligible to play for the US.

We aren’t doing that for basketball because the best players play here in the nba.

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Posted by Jack Ruby

Member since Apr 2014

26541 posts

Posted on 10/6/25 at 7:08 pm to weagle1999

quote:
Look at all those proud Dutchmen.

They probably are. Dutch colonies and territories are all over the world, including the Caribbean. You ever heard of Curaçao? Aruba? All Dutch and have athletes.

Lots of light-skinned dudes have been on the Dutch national teams for years.

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Posted by Jake88

Member since Apr 2005

78304 posts

Posted on 10/6/25 at 7:09 pm to Mile40Saskatchewan

I suspect the criticism stems from the belief that those players are relatively new to the countries they represent. Hired guns, so to speak. I don't know either way and don't care about soccer. Someone mentioned the team USA basketball. Aren't most if not all of those players from families who are multi-generational Americans?

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Posted by TulsaSooner78

Member since Aug 2025

1097 posts

Posted on 10/7/25 at 5:28 am to dgnx6

quote:
Imo that’s different.

I’m pretty sure all of our team USA basketball players were born in the US.

I'm pretty sure that most of the Dutch national soccer team was born in the Netherlands, or a former Dutch colony.

My interpretation of the OP's post was that he was mocking Holland, which is a predominantly white country, for having a national soccer team consisting mostly of mixed race and black players, as if that is some kind of stain on their legacy, and a negative result of their immigration policies.

I was simply pointing out that, even though the US is also a predominantly white country, many of our national athletic teams are not predominantly white. Very similar to Holland.

US immigration issues affect our sports teams, too.

How many of the Latino members of the US men's national soccer team are first or second generation?

Even Pulisic is 2nd generation. His grandfather immigrated from Croatia. He could have probably qualified to play for Croatia internationally, but he chose to play for the US.

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