Croatia’s hero hails from Switzerland, half of French and Belgian players have African ancestry and then there is England

Pelé’s prediction that an African team would win the World Cup before the turn of the 21st century ended up wide of the mark, and this year’s tournament in Russia marked the first time since 1982 that none reached the knockout stages.

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But while that disappointment has been hard to take for supporters of Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia, today’s semi-final between France and Belgium is proof of the enormous influence the sons of of African immigrants have played in confirming European football’s place at the pinnacle of the global game.

In total 23 players – exactly 50% – in Didier Deschamps’ and Roberto Martínez’s squads – can trace their ancestry to Africa. In countries where the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that 6.8% and 12.1% respectively of the population is comprised of migrants, it is an astounding statistic that indicates just how important integration has been.

Just as France the success of Kylian Mbappé – the son of a Cameroonian father and Algerian mother – and his cosmopolitan teammates has provided an emphatic rejoinder to bigotry at home. But if some critics of France have been silenced by superb performances, it had been a different story in Belgium until recently.

“When things were going well, I was reading newspaper articles and they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker,” wrote the Manchester United forward in an article for the Players’ Tribune last month. “When things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent.”

In the squad where seven players can trace roots to the former Belgian colony, Lukaku and Vincent Kompany – whose father, Pierre, is a Congolese diplomat – have emerged as the figureheads for a group that has historically suffered from a terrible legacy.

A few weeks after a teenage Pelé’s heroics for Brazil in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, Brussels hosted the world fair, an event that lasted 200 days and was designed to celebrate the postwar advances made by European nations. It featured a stand with 600 Congolese men, women and children showcasing their “native conditions” in a manufactured “village scene” – later described as the world’s last “human zoo”.

At the end of the second world war Belgium had counted 10 Congolese individuals within its borders, a number now estimated at more than 40,000. After the introduction of a national programme to use football to help integrate recent migrants, and the grassroots transformation at the turn of the century, the results have been spectacular: Belgium’s golden generation has emerged.

Their squad are almost entirely based overseas, with only Anderlecht’s Leander Dendoncker representing the Jupiler League. That is in contrast to France, who have nine players drawn from Ligue 1 – one fewer than the 1998 squad. The Premier League is home to a staggering 40 of the 92 players left in Russia, well ahead of its leading competitor, La Liga, with 12.

It is noticeable that of the semi-finalists Croatia have the most players born outside the country they represent, with 15.4%. Calling on children of migrants, such as the Swiss-born Ivan Rakitic and Mateo Kovacic, who grew up in Austria, is vital for a country with a population of just over 4 million to compete against some of the biggest nations on the planet.

Although nearly 10% of the players at the World Cup were born outside the country they represent – Morocco, with 61%, had by far the most – Belgium, France and England are below the average. Of Gareth Southgate’s squad, only Raheem Sterling was born outside England – yet 47.8% are the children of migrants. That makes it the most ethnically diverse squad to represent England at a World Cup – a fact not lost on their manager.

“In England we have spent a bit of time being a bit lost as to what our modern identity is,” he said after the victory over Panama. “Of course, first and foremost I will be judged on football results. But we have a chance to affect other things that are even bigger.”