List of first black players for European national football teams

The following is a list of the first black or mixed-race players to represent European international association football teams. The first black man to play international football was Andrew Watson, who earned the first of his three caps for Scotland on 12 March 1881, when he captained them in a 6–1 win away to England at The Oval in London.[1]

Team Player Debut Against Notes
 ScotlandAndrew Watson12 March 1881 EnglandBorn in Demerara, British Guiana (now Guyana) to an Afro-Guyanese mother and Scottish father.[1]

No black players represented Scotland since Watson until the debut of Nigel Quashie on 27 May 2004. Quashie was born in London to a Ghanaian father and English mother, and qualified for Scotland through a grandfather.[2]

 AustriaHelmut Köglberger5 September 1965 HungaryBorn in Steyr, Austria to an African-American father and Austrian mother.
 BelgiumDimitri Mbuyu4 February 1987 PortugalBorn in Berchem, Belgium, of Congolese origin.
 Faroe IslandsSonni Nattestad19 November 2013 MaltaBorn in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, of Afro-Haitian origin.
 FranceRaoul Diagne15 February 1931 CzechoslovakiaDiagne was born to Senegalese parents in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana.[3]
 WalesEddie Parris5 December 1931 Northern IrelandParris, born to a black Barbadian father and white English mother in Pwllmeyric near Chepstow, played one match for Wales.[4]
 GermanyErwin Kostedde22 December 1974 MaltaBorn in Münster to an African-American father and German mother.[5]
 GreeceDaniel Batista Lima12 October 1994 FinlandBorn in São Vicente, Cape Verde, a naturalised Greek citizen.
 EnglandViv Anderson29 November 1978 CzechoslovakiaThe first black player to represent England at any level was John Charles, who played for the England under 18's in 1962 and scored against Israel.[6] Paul Ince was the nation's first black captain, against the United States in June 1993.[7]
 Republic of IrelandChris Hughton29 October 1979 United StatesHughton was born in London to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother.[8]
 SpainDonato Gama da Silva16 November 1994 DenmarkBorn in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a naturalised Spanish citizen. The first Spanish-born black player in the team was Vicente Engonga, born in Barcelona to Equatoguinean parents, who debuted against Russia on 23 September 1998.
 NetherlandsHumphrey Mijnals3 April 1960 BulgariaBorn in Paramaribo, Surinam, then a Dutch plantation colony, played three matches for the Netherlands and 45 matches for Suriname.[9][10][11]
 NorwayJohn Carew18 November 1998 EgyptBorn in Akershus, to Gambian father and Norwegian mother.[12]
 PolandEmmanuel Olisadebe16 August 2000 RomaniaBorn in Warri, Nigeria, a naturalised Polish citizen.
 PortugalGuilherme Espírito Santo28 November 1937 SpainBorn in Lisbon, Portugal, of São Toméan descent.
 ItalyMiguel Montuori15 February 1956 FranceBorn in Argentina to an Italian father and an Afro-Argentinian mother.
 Bulgaria Lúcio Wagner 9 May 2006  Japan Born in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, a naturalized Bulgarian citizen.
 Czech RepublicTheodor Gebre Selassie4 June 2011 PeruBorn in Třebíč to an Ethiopian father and Czech mother.[13]
  SwitzerlandBadile Lubamba2 September 2000 RussiaBorn in Kinshasa, he moved to Switzerland at a young age.[14] Blaise Nkufo - the second black player to appear for Switzerland - came on as a substitute in the same match.
 IcelandAnthony Karl Gregory8 August 1990 Faroe Islands
 CroatiaEduardo da Silva16 November 2004 Republic of IrelandBorn in Rio de Janeiro, he was naturalised as a Croatian citizen.
 SlovakiaKarim Guédé10 August 2011 AustriaBorn in Hamburg to a Togolese mother and French father, he was naturalised as a Slovakian citizen.
 SwedenJean-Paul Vonderburg14 February 1990 United Arab EmiratesSwedish born. Martin Dahlin appeared for Sweden's Olympic team in 1988.
 UkraineEdmar Halovskyi de Lacerda10 August 2011 SwedenBorn in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil, he was naturalised as a Ukrainian citizen.
 Northern IrelandJeff Whitley11 February 1997 BelgiumBorn in Lusaka, Zambia to a Northern Irish father and Zambian mother.
 DenmarkSimon Poulsen28 March 2007 GermanyBorn in Sønderborg, of Nigerian and African-American ancestry.
 TurkeyVahap Özaltay14 October 1927 BulgariaBorn in Beirut, Lebanon to Afro-Turk parents.
 HungaryThomas Sowunmi18 August 1999 MoldovaBorn in Lagos, Nigeria to a Nigerian father and Hungarian mother.
 IsraelBaruch Dego12 February 2003 ArmeniaBorn in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but moved to Israel at a young age. Rifaat Turk, an Israeli Arab from Jaffa, of African ancestry, was the first Arab to represent Israel on its national team.
 FinlandNikolai Alho24 January 2014 OmanBorn in Helsinki, Alho also has British citizenship.
 CyprusDossa Júnior15 August 2012 BulgariaBorn in Lisbon, Portugal, Júnior was naturalised as a Cypriot citizen.
 AzerbaijanErnani Pereira7 October 2006 PortugalBorn in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Pereira was naturalised as an Azeri citizen.
 North MacedoniaGilson Jesus da Silva4 June 2006 TurkeyBorn in São Paulo, Brazil, da Silva was naturalised as a Macedonian citizen.
 ArmeniaBalep Ba Ndoumbouk18 February 2004 HungaryBorn in Cameroon, Ba Ndoumbouk was naturalised as an Armenian citizen.
 LuxembourgBenoît Lang30 March 2005 LatviaBorn in Metet, Cameroon, Lang was raised in Luxembourg.
 MaltaChucks Nwoko10 February 1998 GeorgiaBorn in Lagos, Nigeria, Nwoko was naturalised as a Maltese citizen.
 RussiaAri15 November 2018 GermanyBorn in Fortaleza, Brasil, Ari was naturalised as a Russian citizen.
 BelarusMax Ebong9 September 2019 WalesBorn in Vitebsk to a Cameroonian father and Belarusian mother.
 LiechtensteinJustin Ospelt7 October 2020 LuxembourgBorn in Nassau, Bahamas.

See also

References

  1. McGowan, Tom (23 February 2012). "Football pioneer: Andrew Watson - the first black international". CNN. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  2. Darko, Isaac (22 September 2015). "Ghanaian players who chose Euro nations". Pulse. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  3. "15 février 1931. Le premier footballeur noir en équipe de France est fils de ministre. Scandale..." [15 February 1931. The first black footballer in the France national team is son of minister. Scandal...]. Le Point (in French). 15 February 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  4. "John Edward ('Eddie') Parris". Historycal Roots. 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  5. "ERWIN KOSTEDDE: THE FIRST BLACK PLAYER FOR GERMANY". DFB. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  6. Ashdown, Marc (16 October 2019). "First black England player revealed to be John Charles". The Athletic. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  7. Taylor, Daniel (28 November 2008). "Shy pioneer plays down his place in history". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  8. "Hughton factfile". 6 April 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  9. "The Italian Exception". The New Yorker. 24 June 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  10. "Colourful Pioneers". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  11. "Humphrey Mijnals (1930)". Kent u deze nog?. 12 October 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  12. "John Carew: Why football will never be more important than life and death". The Independent. 22 October 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  13. Petrák, Michal (29 May 2012). "Euro 2012: Czech Republic profile - Theodor Gebre Selassie". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  14. "Le premier Noir en équipe de Suisse de football" (in French). Retrieved 11 September 2018.
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