Paris Saint-Germain: An International and Ethnic Profile–Part 2

By: Thomas | August 19th, 2009

I ended the last post talking about the percent of academy graduates of African descent. I’m going to build on that and talk about the percentage of the squad as a whole. Thirteen out of the 27 members of the squad are of African descent, or about 48%, nearly all of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants from the former French West and Central Africa (Mauritania, Congo, Senegal, Mali, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, etc.). The rest of the squad is mainly of French background, with a few players from Eastern Europe, the Indian Ocean, and South America.

Squad Background:

48.5% West and Central African (13 players)
32.5% Western European (9 players)
7% Indian Ocean Islands (2 players)
4% South American (1 player)
4% Eastern European (1 player)
4% Middle Eastern (1 player)
100% PSG (27 players)

Anyway, moving on from ethnicity, and not entirely related to the topic, I thought it would be interesting to find out what percent of our squad is internationally capped for their country’s senior side. I counted and came up with 11. We could make a formation out of them if it weren’t for our two international keepers. So 11/27 players in the squad, or 41%, have at one point been considered the best available player in their home nation at their position. Here they are, our wonderful internationals:

1. Grégory Coupet: Le Puy-en-Velay, France–French*.
4. Claude Makélélé: Kinshasa, DR Congo–French*.
7. Ludovic Giuly: Lyon, France–French*.
8. Péguy Luyindula: Kinshasa, DR Congo–French*.
10. Stéphane Sessegnon: Allahe, Benin–Beninese*.
11. Mevlüt Erdinç: Besancon, France–Turkish*.
13. Sammy Traoré: Paris, France–Malian*.
14. Mateja Kezman: Zemun, Serbia–Serbian*.
15. Zoumana Camara: Paris, France–French*.
25. Jerome Rothen: Paris, France–French*.
30. Apoula Edel: Ekom I-Mfou, Cameroon–Armenian*.

Just for fun, here’s the international formation (For our purposes, I have Apoula as a striker, as he played there in his youth days):

Coupet
Traore Camara
Giuly Makelele Sessegnon Rothen
Kezman Erding Luyindula Edel

I am sure a team like this would fail miserably. End of discussion.

Note: The table which all these stastics are based on can be found here.

End of Part 2. Part three is coming soon, with an exciting, new, and controversial topic!