Arsene Wenger’s comments on Mbappe divides African opinion on social media

An honest assessment of African football struggles by legendary French coach Arsene Wenger has activated heated debate on social media, specifically Twitter with Africans arguing over the cogency of Wenger’s statement.

The former Arsenal manager gave a view on African football in which he sought to establish that Africa is blessed with talent but lack the basic tools to convert those talents into world beaters.

Using French striker Kylian Mbappe as his point of reference, the FIFA Chief for Global Football Development said that the 23-year-old who is of Cameroonian heritage would not have reached his level had he been born in Cameroon.

Wenger’s position is that much as Africa has great talents, the platform and tools for the players to reach their utmost level in the game are either limited or non-existent.

“Mbappé has African roots but was trained in Europe. If he’d been born in Cameroon, he wouldn’t have become the striker he is today. There’s Europe and there’s the rest of the world. The latter needs help, otherwise, we’re going to miss a great deal of talent.”

Wenger made the comment at a FIFA program in his bid to drum home the need for FIFA and the world to support African football.

But his comments were viewed wrongly by some Africans who gave it a racism twist wih the position that Wenger was disrespecting Africa.

Others also noted the man who groomed Oppong Weah and witnessed African goal-scoring greats like Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba should not be making such comments.

But Wenger had a lot of support from other Africans who understood the import of his message as saying that due to the limited opportunities available in Africa, talents tend to go waste and that it has become imperative for the world to turn its eye to Africa.

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