Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Can you tell a player's nationality, just by watching him??



While surfing through a Barça blog I like to read I came across a comment from a fellow reader, recommending Gervinho as a possible signing for Barça. Having never heard of him I decided to check out the vid. I watched the first few highlights from this video, and thought to my self Gervinho? The name depicts that he should be brasileiro, but from his playing style, he definitely has the running and dribbling style of an African, of course as the video kept going I saw his Côte d'Ivoire wristbands and I confirmed my assumptions. Am I the only one who notices or recognizes this? I highly doubt it, but how does this "style" evolve? How can you just tell a players nationality sometimes just by watching a few movements?

2 comments:

  1. Am not sure I could guess where he is from but an interesting thought.

    RCM

    http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com

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  2. The new edition of Champions magazine have a small feature on him. It's a nickname given to him (real name Gervais) by one of his former coaches.

    But on to the real point; 20 years ago his style (apart from Sergniho's)would have been un-Brazilian but now as the game becomes more globalised/homogenized and physical it's more difficult to tell while the name is a complete throw-off.

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