Football stars are often equated with a country's external "business card", for example, when it comes to Argentina, everyone will think of Maradona, Batistuta, Messi these names; When people think of Germany, they think of Beckenbauer, Gad müller, Klose and others. By summarizing these names, it is not difficult to find that the stars often come from countries with a long tradition of football.
This argument is actually not unreasonable: after all, only those countries with traditional football heritage will pay attention to discovering young people who are talented in football, and only large countries can afford the high costs required by the player youth training system.
The old saying that oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges, so is it only countries that meet the above conditions that will create big stars? In fact, this may not be the case, in the following, we will list a few big stars who grew up in small countries.
Golan Pendev
It is undeniable that the historical Macedonia did create a large empire spanning three continents in Asia, Europe and Africa, but now the land area of North Macedonia is only more than 20,000 square kilometers, less than half the size of the mainland half a province, and the per capita GDP is only more than 6,000 US dollars, which is one of the poorest countries in the European Union. But this country has a forward star like Golan Pendev, who has traveled to Inter, Lazio, Napoli and many other giants. He has played 122 games for the national team and is a highly accomplished veteran. The 38-year-old Pandev did not choose to retire and can continue to play for Parma, a middle-rate team in Serie A, which is enough to see that he still maintains a better competitive state.
Henrik Mkhitaryan
Compared to North Macedonia above, many people may not even have heard of the country of "Armenia". Armenia is a landlocked country located in West Asia, one of the former Soviet Union countries, and its per capita GDP is about one-third of that of the continent. Perhaps more well-known than the name of the country, the word "Mkhitaryan" is more well-known in the ears of fans, he is the most popular "Mr. Footballer" in Armenia, has played for Dortmund, Manchester United, Arsenal, Roma and other strong teams, and now Mkhitaryan is likely to throw himself to Inter, he may join Lukaku in becoming the most threatening reinforcement for the Nerazzurri in this summer window.
Didier Drogba
Compared with North Macedonia and Armenia, Côte d'Ivoire in Africa is far more well-known than the former two, it was once one of the richest countries in Africa during the Cold War, but because of corruption and civil war, the domestic economy and people's livelihood have plummeted, and since then. But it is such a country that has produced a superstar such as Didier Drogba, who has won four Premier League titles, one Champions League title, four FA Cup titles and many other honors for the team during his time at Chelsea.
And for those fans who love Drogba, there is a good news that must be shared with them recently, that is, Konami's original football control mobile game "Pro Evolution Soccer", which recently installed a moment version of the Drogba card, from the card surface, the design of the card is based on the final showdown between Chelsea and Bayern on the Allianz Stadium in 2012. At that time, with Drogba's header before the finale, the Blues were able to dream of reversing the Bavarian division in a penalty shootout, and winning it was thrilling!
Both can find the provenance, it is not difficult to guess how powerful the Drogba appeared in the game, in reality, Drogba has a huge body of 189cm, the game development team did not delete this height in the slightest, but dedicated it to the player together with the physical contact of 99, the combination of oppression Everyone can imagine, put him in the front court, almost bumping into who fell.
In terms of specific offensive values, the game design team combined with Drogba's actual combat examples, and specially gave him a 95 head value and a jump value of 99, basically after the top to the drop point, it is a hit.
Back to the beginning of the whole text, the smooth growth of the stars we have seen a lot, at this time to see some players from small countries, but more worthy of our respect, because there is no moisture in their growth process, all the glory and merit are their own real knives and real guns to fight out, talking about these small country celebrities, which of them do you think is particularly commendable? Share it with us in the comments section below.