009: Draggin’ Balls In Our Court

Today’s topic generally is not viewed as a geeky topic, our challenge was to geek out on it. We talk sports. We get into a heated debate on the ‘national choice’ issue that many North African soccer players face during their careers. What makes Zidane, Benzema, Nasri et al choose France over Algeria or vice versa to represent on the international football stage? <span id="more-117"></span> We then discuss the Arab/Saudi sports and why it is extremely difficult for athletes from the region to make it on the international stage. <h2>Show Links</h2> <ol> <li><a href= "http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/12/leicester-city-riyad-mahrez-father-dream-algeria-world-cup" target="_blank">Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez is fast fulfilling his late father’s dreams</a></li> <li><a href="http://youtu.be/iXNfmJkU2sE" target="_blank">Hachim Mastour Proud To Be Moroccan</a></li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Al-Asmari" target= "_blank">Saad Shadad Al-Asmari</a></li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadi_Soua'an_Al-Somaily" target="_blank">Hadi Soua’an</a></li> </ol> <h2>Errata</h2> In 1994 World Cup qualifiers the Egypt-Zimbabwe match was annulled and replayed in France because of Egyptian fans violence. Had the result stood, Egypt would’ve qualified to the final rounds of the African qualifiers. The game in France ended 0-0, allowing Zimbabwe to advance. Rami mistakenly claimed that Egypt qualified to the World Cup only for the match to be awarded to Zimbabwe due to violence.   <p style="text-align: left;"><em>90% Arabic – 10% English</em>