re: Training / drill recommendations for a novice footballer

The ball says “our differences unify us.”

Oh sir Winston, keep it together mate

I'm sure they are on various Russian mail order websites.

I'd love for him to start yelling "Vive la France! Vive la Republique!" a la the French National Team this summer.

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Deep down I suspect most of you regret that France is destined to be a majority Muslim nation within 50 years.

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But it's almost assured that it won't be a Muslim majority country in 50 years. It would require a lot of things to happen. It's just fear-mongering.

Nice duck face

That’s probably the most pretentious picture ever posted on the soccer board

she got a donk

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Why isn’t it higher?

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Because of the EU, France can get lots of talented people from elsewhere in Europe rather than relying on former colonial subjects. Immigration from Europe was much higher than immigration from Africa for every year for which we have data. The data was trending downward before the "reactionary" impulse, which has consistently overstated the degree of Muslim immigration, and the birth rates of Muslims, so much so that French demographers estimated the French population in 2020 would consist of 20% Muslims, when the actual figure is 12% lower (at around 8%).

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And how much have the cities changed with that 8%?

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That's a qualitative question, and thus extremely difficult to answer. In places where the banlieus had little connection to the city at large, you saw mass unemployment and no integration. It was French policy to shuttle immigrants into the banlieus, which often had inappropriate infrastructure for the population flux, and thus struggled with crime and unemployment.

French criminal networks, which were long dominated by Corsicans, was often a way for disaffected immigrants to make money. The traditional avenues of organized crime in France were smuggling, theft, prostitution transformed into complex extortion and smuggling networks, with France and Marseille specifically, becoming a hub for these networks. In that sense, Marseille did not change, as it has long been the hub of criminal enterprises from Corsica, but it's role was expanded, as it serves the entirety of Europe.

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People who want to welcome Muslim refugees should have to explain why 50+% Muslim population is bad, but going from 1% to 10% isn’t.

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Well you're conflating two things. The refugee crisis that has existed since 1991 (yet to be fixed and exacerbated by the Syrian Civil War) is completely separate from the French immigration issues, which started in the 1960's and 70's. A large percentage of French-Algerians are descended from the Harki's, who were a group of Algerians who fought with the French in the Algerian War of Independence. France took in a paltry number of refugees, and most of its population is from the Maghreb, and is entering its 3rd generation in France.

I've never taken a position on whether it is bad or good. It's just a reality of history.

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We know how much the national team has changed, but of course with the athleticism of those from former colonies, that makes sense.

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Soccer is an immigrant sport in France. No one cared that Platini was an Italian immigrant, or that Pires was an Portuguese immigrant, or that Luis Fernandez was Spanish. That it is regarded as an immigrant sport is the one consistent thing about French soccer, and has been for a long time.

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Irrelevant

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How is that irrelevant? If someone says that a country is going to be "Muslim-majority" but the data doesn't support that conclusion, it seems highly relevant.