Joined
·
3,335 Posts
This is interesting folks. I was reading through the recent issue of Four-Four-Two magazine and with it comes a fantastic World Cup Guide.
The World Cup guide lists every country and gives analysis on all of them. Portugal by the way looks very favourable according to Four-Four-Two. What struck me was this: the mag lists the population of each country and how many people are listed as players in each.
Portugal only has 3% of it's population listed as 'active footballers'. That's only 300,000 out of a population of 9.9 million. How does Portugal put out the talent that it does. The United States has 6.8% of it's population listed as 'active footballers' and that amounts to 265.5 million people or 18 million 'active footballers'.
Talk about doing with what you have! 300,000 vs 18.5 million!!!
What surprises me about all of this is that I was thinking all along the reason for Portugal's equisite football is that so many play the game. I was thinking atleast 30-40% of all men between the ages of 15-35 are active footballers. Apparently this IS NOT the case.
Portugal has less people playing football than almost all of the nations in the world cup. And I'm not even talking 'AMOUNT' of players but rather PERCENTAGE!! I would think Portugal being a very small country would have less players being 'active footballers' but PERCENTAGE wise I would never think more people take an active interest in the sport in the U.S, France, Brazil, Ireland, Germany, England, Argentina, Croatia, Italy, Mexico, Belgium, Equador, Uruguay and Sweden!!!
Percentage of Active footballers:
1.Croatia: 14.6%
2.Ecuador: 8.5%
3.Mexico: 8.1%
4.Germany: 7.7%
5.England: 7.1%
6.Italy: 7.0%
7.U.S.A: 6.8%
8.Sweden: 6.8%
9.Uruguay: 6.25%
10.Ireland: 5.55%
11.France: 5.17%
12.Belgium: 4.8%
13.Brazil: 4.48%
14.Argentina: 4.3%
15.Portugal: 3.0%
16.Turkey: 2.7%
17. Japan: 2.7%
18.Russia: 2.57%
19.Tunisia: 0.9%
20. Nigeria: .004%
21. Cameroon: .0005%
The question remains: what the hell does 'active players' mean anyhow?
The World Cup guide lists every country and gives analysis on all of them. Portugal by the way looks very favourable according to Four-Four-Two. What struck me was this: the mag lists the population of each country and how many people are listed as players in each.
Portugal only has 3% of it's population listed as 'active footballers'. That's only 300,000 out of a population of 9.9 million. How does Portugal put out the talent that it does. The United States has 6.8% of it's population listed as 'active footballers' and that amounts to 265.5 million people or 18 million 'active footballers'.
Talk about doing with what you have! 300,000 vs 18.5 million!!!
What surprises me about all of this is that I was thinking all along the reason for Portugal's equisite football is that so many play the game. I was thinking atleast 30-40% of all men between the ages of 15-35 are active footballers. Apparently this IS NOT the case.
Portugal has less people playing football than almost all of the nations in the world cup. And I'm not even talking 'AMOUNT' of players but rather PERCENTAGE!! I would think Portugal being a very small country would have less players being 'active footballers' but PERCENTAGE wise I would never think more people take an active interest in the sport in the U.S, France, Brazil, Ireland, Germany, England, Argentina, Croatia, Italy, Mexico, Belgium, Equador, Uruguay and Sweden!!!
Percentage of Active footballers:
1.Croatia: 14.6%
2.Ecuador: 8.5%
3.Mexico: 8.1%
4.Germany: 7.7%
5.England: 7.1%
6.Italy: 7.0%
7.U.S.A: 6.8%
8.Sweden: 6.8%
9.Uruguay: 6.25%
10.Ireland: 5.55%
11.France: 5.17%
12.Belgium: 4.8%
13.Brazil: 4.48%
14.Argentina: 4.3%
15.Portugal: 3.0%
16.Turkey: 2.7%
17. Japan: 2.7%
18.Russia: 2.57%
19.Tunisia: 0.9%
20. Nigeria: .004%
21. Cameroon: .0005%
The question remains: what the hell does 'active players' mean anyhow?