Paris (AFP) – Cameroonian basketball player Joel Embiid has obtained French nationality, which opens the way to his possible integration into the French team in view of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
At 28, Joel Embiid now officially has French nationality since July 5, following the publication of two decrees validated on July 4. The basketball player had taken steps to be naturalized French a few weeks ago.
A star player in the NBA, he has spent his entire career in the best league on the planet since his debut in 2014 in the jersey of Philadelphia where he averages 26 points and 11 rebounds per game. The pivot of the Sixers (2.13 m, 127 kg) finished top scorer last regular season with an average of 30.6 points per game, but he was disturbed by injuries during the play-offs and the Sixers were eliminated in the semi-finals of the conference by Miami (4-2).
First approaches in 2016
Embiid’s first approaches to the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) date back to 2016. Revealed two years later, they had aroused not very enthusiastic reactions, with full-back Evan Fournier believing in particular that “playing for a country with which you have no ties is disturbing”.
The Cameroonian pivot has never played in France but while he speaks perfect English and French, he was justified in the newspaper The Team, explaining that he has many ties in France. ” I have a lot of family in France, he said. Uncles, aunts… I went there when I was young to spend two months on vacation. […] I have always been a fan of France in general. The fact of speaking French, the family there, my father and my mother are in France maybe three times a year and wanted to buy a house or an apartment there. »
Faced with criticism, the captain and winger of the Blues Nicolas Batum had shown himself to be more nuanced about a possible integration of the pivot into the France team, in an interview with the newspaper L’Équipe in May. ” I can understand that it’s ethically disturbing, but (…) an Embiid-Gobert racket (pivot of the Blues Editor’s note), p…n! he had said.
No guaranteed access to the France team
At the end of June, the general manager of the Blues Boris Diaw, himself a former NBA player, had indicated that a naturalization of Embiid would not guarantee him direct access to the France team. ” The day when it will be obtained, it will be another subject to make a selection and to take the players who have the capacities to carry this team of France while remaining in the state of mind of the group. Diaw said.
Joël Embiid, who has never worn the Cameroon jersey in competition, could therefore soon wear that of the France team. The Fécabasket however tried for a long time to convince him to join the selection without success. The fault in particular of a clause of his contract with the Philadelphia Sixers which requires the Cameroonian Federation to take out huge insurance to allow the player to represent the national team.
Cameroon still hopes
On the Cameroonian side, this naturalization in any case makes people cringe even if Fécafoot believes that this does not bode well for the player’s sporting future in the national team. ” What we can say is that several Cameroonian players have dual nationality and so far we think that doesn’t mean much. We still hope that Joel Embiid will play for Cameroon “, declared Camille Njoh Ekindi, the secretary general of the Cameroonian Basketball Federation at the microphone of RFI.
In any case, the French team, which hopes to do well at the next 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris, could thus count on a reinforcement of choice. The prospect of a Joël Embiid – Rudy Gobert association in the racket makes basketball fans salivate. France could thus align two of the best players on the planet in this position.
(With AFP)