Truism; nationalism or simply sport?

 Portuguese National Team

Lesser-known colonizer Portugal keeps Fenerbahce S.K. Defender Bruno Alves, Real Madrid defender Fabio Coentrao, Valencia defender Ricardo Costa, Besiktas J.K. forward Hugo Almeida and Lazio striker Helder Postiga. But it loses Real Madrid defender Kepler Laveran Lima Ferreira, aka Pepe, to his native Brazil.
It also drops Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha, aka Nani, who was born in Cape Verde, and FC Porto winger Silvestre Varela, whose parents were born there. Lucky for them, Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo, whose great grandmother was from Cape Verde, isn't an immigrant by our rules.

Márcio Domingues

Here's What World Cup Teams Would Look Like If Immigrants Weren't Allowed To Play

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140610/world-cup-winners-and-losers-no-immigration-cup#ixzz34zz3JKre

Playing Abroad

                                                        Playing Abroad

Here we can overlook how many players are playing outside of their home country of the countries involved in this year's Fifa World Cup, Brazil 2014.

Some of the world’s best soccer players are gathered in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, which began this week. But during the rest of the year, the 736 players who are members of national teams play on club teams around the world in 53 different countries.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/06/where-world-cup-footballers-play-during-the-regular-season/

Márcio Domingues

The figure shows possible migration between a place of origin and a place of destination,with positive and negative signs signify pull and push factors, respectively. Flows take place between two places, but there are intervening obstacles to these spatial movements. Although these obstacles are represented by "mountain" shapes, keep in mind that the obstacles need not be limited to physical barriers. Restrictive immigration laws, for example, can present a formidable barrier to prospective migrants. Note that both the origin and destination have pushes and pulls, reflecting the reality that any migrant must consider both the positives of staying and the negatives of moving, as well as their converses. The logic of the push-pull theory is that if the plusses (pulls) at the destination outweigh the plusses of staying at the origin, as shown below, them migration is likely to occur. 

Márcio Domingues