France overcame Croatia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup final to win their second World Cup trophy overall.
Nevertheless, despite being a European nation, 87% of the 2018 winning team was made up of immigrants.
As of 2014, there were up to 6 million immigrants living in France, which has a robust immigrant population of 9.1%.
This percentage of immigrants is a direct product of post-World War II labor laws because France desperately needed to import labor from its colonies to make up for the labor shortage soon after the war.
Many of these laborers later made France their permanent home, where they raised families and developed successful careers.
Children of these immigrants have gone on to win the World Cup for France decades later.
Surprisingly, 20 players on the World Cup-winning team—or 87% of the team—are immigrants, either directly or indirectly (via parents or earlier generations of forefathers who immigrated).
The Qatar 2022 World Cup is currently underway, and the bulk of its squad is made up of non-natives.
Almost 92% of the current France squad and staff are from other countries of the World, and here, Futballnews brings you the origins of the players:
Hugo Lloris
Lloris was born to a wealthy family on December 26, 1986, in the Mediterranean city of Nice. His father is a Spanish-born banker with a base in Monte Carlo, while his French mother was a lawyer.
Alphonse Areola
Areola has participated in all facets of youth football in France.
Due to the fact that both of his parents have Filipino ancestry, he was also qualified to play for the Philippines national team. Team manager Dan Palami personally urged him to think about joining the team in 2011 but he settled for France national team.
Steve Mandanda
On March 28, 1985, Mandanda was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire), but at the age of two, he and his family relocated to Évreux, France.
Benjamin Pavard
The former France international striker Jean-Pierre Papin also started his career at Jeumont, the hometown club of Pavard, who was born in Maubeuge, Nord, close to the Belgian border.
Jules Koundé
Koundé, who was born on November 12th, 1998, is half-Beninian and half-French.
Raphael Varane
In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, in the city of Lille, Varane was born. His mother, Annie, was raised in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, and his father, Gaston, is a native of Le Morne-Rouge, giving him Martiniquais ancestry.
Presnel Kimpembe
Kimpembe was born to a Congolese father and a Haitian mother in Beaumont-sur-Oise, France. He was given his maternal grandfather’s name.
William Saliba
In Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis, Saliba was born. His mother is from Cameroon and his father is from Lebanon.
Theo and Lucas Hernandez
Jean-François Hernandez, Hernandez’s father, was a football player. His older brother Lucas, a center-back who plays for Bayern Munich and France, was also nurtured at the club. He is of Spanish origin and played for Atlético Madrid.
Ibrahima Konaté
Ibrahima Konaté was born in Paris on May 25, 1999. He is the second youngest of eight children born to immigrants from Mali and grew up on a council estate in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
Dayot Upamecano
Dayotchanculle Oswald Upamecano, who is of Bissau-Guinean ancestry, was born on October 27, 1998, in Évreux, Normandy.
He was reared in the African immigrant-heavy neighborhood of La Madeleine.
Adrien Rabiot
Adrien Thibault Marie Rabiot, a central midfielder for Serie A team Juventus and the France national team, was born on April 3, 1995, in France.
Aurelien Tchouaméni
Tchouaméni was raised in Bordeaux, Gironde, although being born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime.
Youssouf Fofana
On January 10, 1999, Youssouf Fofana was born in Paris. He has a Malian ancestry.
Matteo Guendouzi
A midfielder for Ligue 1 team Marseille and the France national team, Matteo Elias Kenzo Guendouzi Olié was born in France on April 14, 1999. He has partial Moroccan heritage.
Jordan Veretout
Jordan Marcel Gilbert Veretout is a French professional footballer who competes for both the France national team and Ligue 1 club Marseille. He was born on March 1, 1993.
Eduardo Camavinga
Camavinga was born to Congolese parents at a refugee camp in Cabinda, Angola, in 2002.
His sibling count is five. At age 2, his family relocated to France. He was raised in Fougères, so they relocated there. He used to practice judo but eventually stopped to concentrate only on football.
Kingsley Coman
Coman, who was born in Paris to Guadeloupean parents, started working for US Sénart-Moissy when he was six years old in 2002.
Kylian Mbappé
Mbappé was born and reared in Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis, a community 10.9 kilometers (6.8 miles) outside of the heart of Paris. Wilfried, his father, is from Cameroon and is not just Mbappé’s agent but also a football coach.
His mother, Fayza Lamari, is a former handball player who is of Algerian Kabyle descent.
Karim Benzema
Benzema was born in Lyon to Algerian-born French citizens. Before moving to Lyon, where he eventually settled in the 1950s, his grandfather, Da Lakehal Benzema, resided in the village of Tigzirt, which is situated in the northern town of At Djellil in Algeria.
Hafid, Benzema’s father, was born in Tigzirt, and Wahida Djebbara, Benzema’s mother, was born in Lyon and raised there; her ancestors were from Oran.
Olivier Giroud
Giroud was raised in the neighbouring village of Froges, close to Grenoble, after being born in Chambéry, France, in the Rhône-Alpes area.
Antoine Griezmann
Griezmann was born in the Saône-et-Loire département’s Mâcon commune. Alain, his father, is a town councilman from a family with roots in Münster, Germany.
His last name was initially spelled “Griesmann,” but for social reasons it was changed to “Griezmann.”
Ousmane Dembélé
In the Normandy town of Vernon, Eure, Dembélé was born. His father is from Mali, while his mother is Mauritanian-Senegalese from Waly Diantang.
Christopher Nkunku
Christopher Alan Nkunku was born in Lagny-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne, on November 14, 1997.
Indeed, the recent World Champions are actually from all over the world, which is appropriate given that they are working together to achieve a patriotic goal in honor of their adopted country.
Hence, we are about to see another instance of immigrants dominating the world during the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
