I like this model

Dani Rodrik has written an entire article using soccer to look at the effects of globalization. His argument rests on the assertion that the international character of the game and the prevalence of African players in the European professional leagues has actually raised the level of play in both Europe and Africa, but he is well aware of the shades of gray this issue brings up. The lack of European players in some of the professional clubs has led to charges that these countries are ignoring their own local programs, and similar problems seem to exist in some places in Africa. The example he uses for this is the way in which Egypt has dominated the Africa Cup of Nations recently; if Egypt (with four players from European professional clubs) continually plays better than teams like Cameroon (loaded with European stars) the links between play in Europe and success in general are somewhat more complicated.

The real lesson is that taking full advantage of globalization requires developing domestic capabilities along with international links. What makes the difference for Egypt is that it has a strong domestic league, which fosters depth of talent and coherence as a national team.

I agree with his point and I think this is a great way of modeling it, but I also think that the example of Egypt is also interesting because, in addition to doing very well in Africa, it has not translated that success onto a more global stage yet, so I think there is more to the question.


Hat tip: 3QuarksDaily