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calciopics · 2 years ago

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14 famous footballers' sons looking to make it big

Want to feel old? The offspring of players that seemingly retired only yesterday are taking their first steps in the game

Poor Alfe-Inge Haaland. A competent Premier League player who won 34 caps for Norway is now most famous for being the dad of Erling.

The Manchester City striker has already had a better career than his dad, with all due respect to the former City, Leeds and Nottingham Forest midfielder. But what about other sons of famous footballers?

Here are 14 players aged 21 or under looking to follow in their fathers’ footsteps…

Etienne Eto'o

One of the greatest African footballers of all time, Samuel Eto'o enjoyed a magnificent career with the likes of Real Mallorca, Barcelona and Inter (Everton, less so).

Two of his brothers, David and Etienne, are also footballers, and Samuel has a son who is now taking his first steps in the game. Etienne Eto'o had a trial with Benfica in 2021, before signing his first professional deal with fellow Portuguese side Vitoria de Guimaraes this year.

Khephren Thuram

A World Cup, European Championship and UEFA Cup winner during his playing days, Lilian Thuram is France’s all-time record appearance maker with 142 caps. His first son Marcus clearly inherited dad’s talent: the Borussia Monchengladbach forward has an outside chance of being included in Didier Deschamps’ squad for Qatar.

Just over three years younger than Marcus, Khephren Thuram is a regular for France’s Under-21s. Born in Italy while Lilian was playing for Parma, Khephren is a key part of Lucien Favre’s Nice team.

Isaac Drogba

A Chelsea legend who won virtually everything there is to win at Stamford Bridge, Didier Drogba is widely regarded as one of the greatest strikers in Premier League history.

His son, Isaac, was part of Chelsea’s youth setup until 2018, when he joined French outfit Guingamp. The centre-forward spent a few months with Caratese in the Italian lower leagues last year, and is now turning out for Portuguese side Coimbra.

Harvey Neville

When Phil Neville joined Valencia as a coach in 2015, he brought his son Harvey with him. The youngster, who like his dad can play at full-back or in midfield, later spent three years on Manchester United’s books.

Neville Jr. again followed his dad to Inter Miami in 2021. After 18 appearances for the club’s second team, the 20-year-old was brought into the senior squad for the 2022 campaign.

Romeo Beckham

Playing his trade alongside Neville at Inter Miami is a man with an even more famous dad. Romeo, the second of David Beckham’s three sons, once spent a few months on the books of Arsenal, and he is now playing for the MLS club’s second team.

Inter Miami, of course, are part-owned by the former England captain. Romeo may one day feel the need to escape from his father’s considerable shadow.

Theo Zidane

One of the most significant figures in the history of Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane will always be associated with the Blancos more than any other club. And although he stepped down from his role as Madrid manager in 2021, the Zidane clan still has representation at the Bernabeu.

That is courtesy of Theo, a promising midfielder who plays for Real Madrid Castilla. His two older brothers are professional footballers too: fellow midfielder Enzo is at Fuenlabrada and Luca is a goalkeeper for Eibar.

Andri Gudjohnsen

Papa Eidur Gudjohnsen is familiar to football fans from his successful spells at Bolton, Chelsea and Barcelona, plus short stints at Tottenham, Stoke and Fulham. But he hails from proper football stock: his own dad was an Icelandic international, too – Eidur made his debut as a substitute for Arnor in 1996 – and his brother came up through Swansea’s youth system.

Now he has three sons in the sport as well. Eldest Sveinn Aron plays for IF Elfsborg, youngest Daniel Tristan is in Malmo’s academy, while middle child Andri Lucas is a striker currently plying his trade at IFK Norrkoping in Sweden. He spent time in both Barcelona and Real Madrid’s youth setups, even making the senior squad for Real Madrid’s Champions League campaign in 2021.

Aged 20, Andri has 12 caps for Iceland and two goals to his name.

James Carragher

A boyhood Everton fan, Jamie Carragher became a Liverpool legend during a one-club career which saw him play 737 times for the Reds. His son James spent six years in the club’s academy but was let go in 2017.

Picked up by Wigan, Carragher Jr. made his professional debut for the Latics in August 2021. A 6ft 4in centre-back, the 20-year-old is currently on loan at Oldham in the National League.

Gio Reyna

A United States international, Reyna was also eligible to represent England due to his birthplace of Sunderland. His dad Claudio was playing for the Black Cats at the time; the midfielder also turned out for Bayer Leverkusen, Rangers, Manchester City and New York Red Bulls during his career.

His son Giovanni came through the New York City academy before moving to Borussia Dortmund in 2019. He has since made 86 appearances for the German giants and won 14 caps for his country.

Maurizio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino is known for his managerial exploits these days, but he had an excellent playing career with the likes of of Espanyol, PSG and the Argentina national team.

His son Maurizio spent time at the academies of Southampton and Tottenham while his dad was the first-team manager of both clubs. After spending last term at Watford, the 21-year-old joined Spanish side Gimnastic in the summer.

Maxim Gullit

Ruud Gullit was one of the best footballers of his generation. A title winner with three different clubs, the Dutchman also lifted two European Cups with AC Milan and Euro ‘88 with the Netherlands.

His son Maxim would do well to match his father’s achievements in the game, but the Cambuur defender comes from rich footballing stock: his mum Estelle is a niece of the late, great Johan Cruyff.

Daniel Maldini

When Daniel Maldini made his AC Milan debut in 2020, he was the third generation of his family to play for the Italian giants, after grandad Cesare and father Paolo. But unlike those two club greats, the youngest Maldini is not a defender but an attacking midfielder.

He has made 24 appearances for the Rossoneri in total but is spending the 2022/23 campaign on loan at Spezia.

Charlie Savage

Robbie Savage was on co-commentary duty for BT Sport when his son Charlie made his Manchester United debut in 2021. “What a proud day for my boy… what a day for me, his mother, his grandparents,” an emotional dad said as the young midfielder entered the Old Trafford pitch.

A Wales Under-21 international, Savage Jr. plays in the same midfield position as his dad - although the 19-year-old insists he’s less tenacious and more technically gifted than the old man.

Benjani Jr.

Benjani played for four Premier League clubs - Portsmouth, Manchester City, Blackburn and Sunderland - between 2006 and 2011. The striker went on to represent two clubs in South Africa, before hanging up his boots in 2014.

His son, known as Benjani Jr., signed a professional contract with Yeovil Town in October 2022, having previously been part of Portsmouth’s academy.

By Greg Lea - FourFourTwo

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hjemne · 7 months ago

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On any given day France is only about two steps away from sliding straight back into imperialist nationalism istg

So much goes back to how protective the powers that be are over the French language, and how they constantly construct enemies who are out to destroy their language and colonial heritage.

I've been reading various decrees from my most hated and despised enemy l'Académie française and its absolutely mind-boggling how they wrote about how they could "defend" and "save" French through the standardisation of English. They say standardisation would create a new language (a global English) which is no longer a "language of culture" (and so no longer a threat to their precious french i guess???). And then they IMMEDIATELY turn around and go 'and we must return to the "purity" (yuck) of French, and so l'Académie française needs to dictate and control how French is used.' My guys... how is that not reinforcing the standardisation of language which you think will kill English??? Oh wait I forgot it's because the french language* is the "unique instrument" which can bring world peace and is the most specialest of languages. *the French of France

The future of the French language is in Africa, no matter how much the Académie wants to pretend they can maintain control over it. In the words of Ahmadou Kourouma, 'the French have their language. They have violated many peoples but they would like their language to remain pure. This is not possible.' The Académie's insistence on 'preserving the purity of French' blablabla because its oh so important that it can be used to express (Western) art & science is a deeply conservative and imperialist stance that serves to reinforce France's power over its former colonies. What good does the language serve if it won't allow its speakers to express themselves, their cultures, and their lived realities? African religions cannot be accurately expressed in 'standard/proper' French, and gender queer people (& women tbh) simply cannot exist within the French language when the Académie continues to call gender-inclusive language an "aberration" which puts French in "mortal danger" from other languages which will 'prevail' at French's expense. Which really shows that institutionalising and promoting la Francophonie isn't actually about facilitating inter-group exchange via a shared language; it's about giving France's cultural, political and economic control over former colonies the façade of being something other than neocolonialism.

And I really cannot stress enough how much of France's cultural identity is based around its imagined superiority and exceptionality (which is literally baked into French law!!). Like so much of French political rhetoric is based around this need to fight back against some existential threat posed by The Other. You've got the extreme right Reconquête party (REconquest, jfc) calling mass 'remigration' & has the backing of 7-8% of voters (and the far-right FN party getting another 30%). And then ''''''centrist''''' Macron calls for 'demographic rearming' (not via easing immigration rules, but by pushing for more French babies to be born) and talking about the need to create a 'society of vigilance' against the 'Islamist hydra' and ceding to the far right in order to pass his immigration bill (1/3 of which was deemed unconstitutional or legislative riders, including a section which would've required foreigners to live in France for 10 years (!) before becoming naturalised citizens.

This is a country where every single child is taught to internalise that 'the masculine takes precedence over the feminine' and is 'neutral'. Where a national sporting hero is loudly denounced as a reverse racist for pointing out that there is a cultural belief of white superiority in France, meanwhile 9/10 black people in France say they've faced racial discrimination.

France uses the rhetoric of 'not following republicain values' as a cudgel against those who are inherently excluded from its white, bourgeois, male & catho-laïque* conception of 'universalism'. If you don't - or can't - conform, or dare to speak out against the unyielding assimilationism, it's labelled a sign of communautarisme, which according to the right, is basically the same as being an organised, hostile, separatist faction working to destroy the pure and noble Enlightenment values and heritage of the République. There is no room for multiculturalism. In france, you have the freedom to conform to its narrow definition of universalism. And if you don't follow along, well, clearly you're too uncivilised to know how to use your freedom properly, because there's no way you'd use it to criticise France, a country which is perfect.

The rhetoric being used and the policies being implemented in France are incredibly concerning, as is the massive support for extremely far right political parties. I don't know what's going to happen in French politics in the next few years, and in all honesty, I'm scared to find out. What I do know, is that the process of fully decolonising if a long, long way from being complete, and we need to be ready to think critically about things we feel attached to or assume are politically neutral.

*laïcité = secularism. In theory it's about separation of church and state, but it relegates all 'ostentatious' symbols of religion to 'private' life, so in practice it's used as an excuse to increasingly exclude religious minorities (especially young muslim women) from public spaces. You're not allowed to wear in public schools religious head coverings (e.g. hijab, kippah) or long skirts (only if the school thinks you're wearing it for religious reasons. you can for fashion reasons. France is valiantly protecting young women from ;;;;misogynistic radical islamist extremism;;;; which tells them what to wear, by telling them what to wear, don't you see).

I'm using catho-laïque to mean that, despite the emphasis on laïcité, secularism in France is effectively secular Catholicism. Catholicism underpins French culture and is taken for granted as being the neutral default. 6/11 of their national public holidays are Catholic religious days of observance/celebration, meaning the whole country shuts down for a week each year so the Catholics can observe their religious calendar, and it's never brought up as a potential conflict with secular politics.

The French language itself also has this same Catholic cultural bias too, making it hard, for example, to discuss African religions or cultures in Académie-approved 'proper' French language. Ahmadou Kourouma (from the Ivory Coast) wrote an essay about the difficulties of expressing his reality in written French when there's no word that truly encapsulates his God, religious practices, and the oral culture of his native language malinké. He called for an open, multicultural and equal francophone world, which can only be done by accepting 'africanised' or other non-standard uses of French, but this is firmly rejected by the western arbiters of French who very much do not want to decolonise and decentralise the French language. I wonder why.

I love this quote from Kourouma because it summarises everything so succinctly: 'We cannot be totally free if we do not possess the language which allows us to express ourselves completely.' It should be fairly clear at this point that 'liberté, égalité, fraternité' all take on very specific and restricted meanings in the context of the French state, but I still think it's worth pointing out the hypocracy and neocolonial implications of the French ideals vs how they're used in practice.

I'd definitely recommend his novels, which you can find here in both English and French.

I'd also definitely recommend checking out the icon that is Lilian Thuram who has suffered more than any tumblr user at being accused of pissing on the poor by people who misread the title of his book La pensée blanche and call him an anti-white racist. He also wrote Mes étoiles noires which is also a good read.

Thuram is just such an incredibly interesting guy. He talks a lot about how he wasn't born black, but became black aged 9 when he moved to Paris from Guadeloupe (a French territory in the Carribean), and became aware that other people had assigned him a category based on his skin colour which marked him as lesser. He uses Simone de Beauvoir's framework of how she wasn't born a woman, but became one through socialisation to talk about race which is super interesting. Also, it's why he told the biggest figure in the French far-right, Jean-Marie Le Pen, "personally, I'm not black" when Le Pen was bitching about the French national football team not being white enough. King shit, even if it went over people's heads. He's so cool, go read his interviews. He is fighting an uphill battle, but oh boy is he fighting. (here's his anti-racism foundation's site in French).

You can read an incredible discussion about race, politics and football in this book (p.177-194). When I tell you that a footballer getting a red card for headbutting someone had real implications for the discussion of race & immigration in France, I'm being dead serious.

This is the sort of reaction that Thuram gets btw

"oh wouldn't Africa have been better off if it kept you [i.e. 'you should have stayed in Africa if you hate white people so much'], what a shame..."

He's literally french!! from the caribbean!! oh my fucking god how do you not see this is literally the type of racist thinking that he's talking about ahhhhhhhhgghhhgg

"he was praised in 1998 [after he won the world cup] by all of France, and no one made any reference to the colour of his skin. He's ruining this beautiful memory with his racist ideas."

OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FACTUALLY INACCURATE. i think they said this just to piss me off in particular. What do you mean that no one talked about the 1998 French team's skin colour? That's all they talked about for years. You mean to tell me that the incredibly famous slogan 'black-blanc-beur' [black-white-arab] was not about ethnicities??? And Thuram is only now bringing up the topic of race? Get so fucking forreal. Boohoo your memories of the 98 victory are being ruined by racism? You know who else's were? Thuram's.

And you know how i can be so so certain that it wasn't just leftist academics who were talking about la France black-blanc-beur? You know who cannot stop bringing up the French team's skin colour? Jean-Marie Le Pen [OG far-right racist politician]. You know who else goes on about how the media would not stop telling you about the racial diversity of the team and how everyone in France was talking about the team's skin colour? Eric fuckin Zemmour [current extreme-right political shithead]

(no translation, it's all just racist bullshit. It is funny how close he gets at times tho. 'lots of young, aspiring football players after 1998 felt like they'd experienced social exclusion, and football was an area which they felt they could thrive in and escape the misery of growing up in the banlieu.' YEAH MY DUDE. he's so close to putting the cause & effect together for why marginalised ethnicities from disadvantaged areas are overrepresented in professional football. but no, he has to go on about how these new plays weren't like Zidane (the golden boy of assimilation via football), they sucked because they rejected all authority by eating... halal....hmm....) (Zemmour also takes the time to bitch about how 1998 was also when the anglicism 'coach' entered popular use in France, because he has to really emphasise how the world cup victory was part of the 'suicide' of the French nation in any and all ways possible. It's honestly just pathetic more than anything at this point. He just cycles through the same 4 scapegoats overe and over (I can only assume it's because he's allergic to all forms of diversity) )

Like..... absolutely everyone is in agreement that the ethnic diversity of the 1998 team was a huge talking point. This is the one thing that everyone across the political spectrum can agree on. So WHY would you make it your argument that 'no one made any reference to his skin colour uwu'. The team was THE example of the successes of French integration. And yeah, it sucks to realise things weren't as good as you thought they were, but Thuram has every right to turn around and ask why the acceptance of his 'frenchness' by society was conditional on the team's success. Why whether he (& other non-white players) was 'worthy' of representing France (which he has done in more matches than all but one player ever in French history) was not just a question of football abilities, but also about whether he was 'dignified' enough to be French. And why talking out against inequality and injustice made him less deserving.

There are definitely other , smarter ways of fighting against the stupidity/foolishness of certain spectaters [referencing the fact that Thuram discussed the many many times that spectators made monkey noises at him & others during football matches]."

Ohhhhhhh my god Thuram is literally examining at the systems in society that led people to make such blatantly racist gestures. Does this guy think he should go to racist football fans one by one and tell them nicely to stop?? The description of it as 'bêtise' is also driving me up the wall because its so dismissive of how serious and horrific these overt and public displays of racial hatred are. 'J'ai fait une bêtise' is I did a whoopsie, I did a dumb thing. Also the fact it's qualified with 'certain' spectators. 'Oui okay something bad did happen, but it wasn't that many people, it wasn't that big of a deal, and you should be dealing with it in a different way because talking about structural racism makes me uncomfortable.' Killing you with my death ray. Do more introspection and less historical revisionism.

Also Thuram has literally addressed this

« J'ai l'impression que l'on parle du racisme avec superficialité. Comme si c'était un phénomène individualisé, de personnes "pas gentilles". Non, c'est une idéologie politique qui a une profondeur historique ! »

Anyway.... long long rant over. there was a documentary on netflix about french football and black blanc beur back in 2017 ish and if anyone knows how to track it down i'd love to rewatch it. Also here’s a link to some articles on the topic if you want to read some more.

#jesus christ i've been doing this all day #france #decolonization #l'academie francaise my worstie i hope u blow up and die #rambles #lilian thuram #ahmadou kourouma #emmanuel macron

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