The German national football team’s squad for the current World Cup is more ‘international’ than ever before: of the 26 players selected for the squad, 14 – or 54 per cent – have a migrant background, as research by ‘Mediendienst Integration’ shows. This proportion of players with a migrant background is thus significantly higher than in the German population as a whole, where 31.1 per cent of people had a migrant background in 2025. At the last World Cup in 2022, 42.3 per cent of German players had a migrant background, whilst at the last European Championship in 2024 the figure was 34.6 per cent. At the 2014 World Cup, when Germany became world champions, the proportion was just 26.1 per cent.
Dual citizenship is a defining feature of international football
International figures show that this ethnic diversity applies to large parts of international professional football. According to figures compiled by the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford, almost a quarter of all players selected for the World Cup (around 300 out of 1,248 players) were born in a country other than the one they represent on the pitch. For example, more than half of the players in the US national team hold dual nationality. For France and Switzerland, too, the proportion has been over 50 per cent for years. Morocco (73 per cent), Congo (85 per cent) and Curaçao (96 per cent) have particularly high proportions of players with a migrant background.
Multinational Qatar
The Qatar team plays a special role, with 11 different nationalities represented. In the sociology of sport, this is referred to as a “multinational squad”. The driving force behind this is the state-run training academy in Doha. For years, it has systematically scouted young talent – primarily from African countries and the Arab world – brought them to Qatar, provided them with sporting training and gradually naturalised them. Unlike in Europe, however, these players often only obtain a ‘Mission Passport’ for everyday life and do not gain full, permanent citizenship.
France trains players for the world
France has been the most successful in taking the opposite approach – training players in their own country and deploying them for other national teams: for the 2026 World Cup, 99 players have been registered who were born in France and hold French citizenship. Three-quarters of them play for countries that were once French colonies or protectorates: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia; Senegal, the Ivory Coast and the Congo; as well as for other countries such as Haiti. In this ranking, France is followed by the Netherlands with 67, Germany with 50 and England with 49 players who do not play for the country of their original citizenship. These figures were compiled by the French newspaper *Le Parisien*. As a result of these trends, it is not uncommon at the World Cup for brothers to play for different national teams: for example, the Doué brothers play for France and the Ivory Coast, whilst the Williams brothers play for Spain and Ghana.
Sociological studies: the global labour market in professional football
These international interconnections have also been the subject of academic research: studies in the sociology of sport show that international professional football constitutes a globalised labour market in which the migration of players is shaped primarily by economic inequalities between football markets. Talented players often migrate from peripheral regions to the financially strong top European leagues, giving rise to international migration networks and transnational career paths. The Dutch sociologist Thijs A. Velema summarises his own study from 2025: “The results show that whilst migration connects all countries in the world of football, the largest migration flows occur between countries that are closely linked linguistically, economically and geographically. These findings support theories that emphasise how linguistic and geographical boundaries shape migration.”
World Cups in team sports are, in fact, designed as competitions between nations. However, the facts presented here reveal strong links that run counter to this competition. Talented players who hold dual citizenship as a result of migration can choose which country they wish to represent internationally and, during their junior years, can even switch between countries. And sometimes they acquire a new citizenship on the basis of their talent. So, alongside the sporting competition between teams, there is also competition for the best players.
Further information:
How many national football players have a migrant background? | Football | Diversity | Figures and studies | Mediendienst Integration
Has migration become an ingredient of World Cup success? | COMPAS
2026 World Cup: How France became a global football power thanks to the Parisian suburbs – Sport – SZ.de
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