A World Cup predicament: Scoring against a country that feels like home

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Scoring for your country in international football is almost always a cause for celebration.

Unless, that is, the team you’ve just scored against is the nation where you or your parents were born.

That is the dilemma which faced Sweden’s Yasin Asari against Tunisia in the sides’ World Cup game on Sunday.

Many others over the years have had the same unusual experience — bringing with it questions over how to celebrate, or whether to do so at all.

As the global game becomes further influenced by diaspora communities, the phenomenon is likely to become more frequent.

For many, the initial reaction is to signal respect. Born in Solna, Stockholm to a Tunisian father, Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Ayari will have faced that struggle of conflicting emotions more than most when he scored twice against Tunisia.

Both goals were impressive. He opened the scoring with a superb half-volley, in a game Sweden won 5-1, and had the last word, too, with another emphatic strike from outside the area.

Ayari held up his hands in an apologetic gesture after the first, but allowed himself to celebrate more when he dispatched the game’s final goal.

Yasin Ayari celebrates his second goal with more aplomb (David Ramos/Getty Images)

His father, Azzouz, has previously spoken with Swedish media about how his ‌son turned down the opportunity to play for Tunisia at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Tunisia is a good example of how such scenarios will become more common: 15 players (almost 60 per cent) of the squad were born in another country.

After the game in Monterrey, Mexico, Ayari told reporters it was “emotional” to play against the country he has “so many feelings for”.

“As everyone knows, my father is from there, I’ve spent many ​summers there, I have a lot of family there, but now I’m playing for ⁠Sweden and I have to do my best for Sweden,” the 22-year-old said.

“As everyone knows, I have roots ​there. It was a special match for me. I have a lot of feelings for Tunisia, but I ​am happy that we won.”

Asked about his more enthusiastic reaction to the second goal, he added: “That was ​the nail in the coffin, then I could let loose a little. It is not every day that you score ‌two ⁠goals in a World Cup.”

His father has always been sympathetic towards his son’s choice. “My children were born in Sweden. I want him to play ​for Sweden, he should feel ​like he is giving ⁠back to the country that really took care of him,” Azzouz told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in an interview before the tournament.

The family feels a close connection to the Scandinavian nation. Yasin and his younger brother Taha started their ​careers at local clubs AIK ⁠and Amina, and their Moroccan mother often worked at the Strawberry Arena where AIK and the national team play their home games.

Tunisia’s coach Sabri Lamouchi, who was sacked after the defeat, also expressed his support before the match.

“I know him and his brother,” Lamouchi said. “He made a choice, I have a lot of respect, and he’s a very good player. We wish him, after the game, best of luck, but that is after the game.”

Ayari could have played at Qatar had he chosen to represent Tunisia (Sweden did not qualify) but decided to bide his time.

“It was crazy that we got them in the group,” Ayari said in Aftonbladet. “What a coincidence. But I think it’s mostly special for him and the family there. For me, it’ll just be fun.”

At the last World Cup in 2022, Switzerland forward Breel Embolo faced a similar dilemma.

Born in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde, he moved to France with his mother aged five and attended school there before the family eventually settled in Basel, Switzerland.

In the opening game of Group G in Qatar, he lined-up against Cameroon and scored the only goal — his first at a World Cup.

His response was closer to apologetic, holding his hands up and refusing to celebrate.

(Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

“I’ve been saying for a while now that the Cameroon match was important for me on an emotional level,” he said afterwards. “I’ve also said how happy and proud I am to represent Switzerland. I knew that if I scored I wouldn’t celebrate the goal, out of respect. That didn’t mean to say I wasn’t happy about it, though.”

Embolo certainly had the respect of Cameroon’s Jean-Pierre Nsame, who spent eight years playing in Switzerland. Nsame was an unused substitute in the game but said: “I’d have acted in the same way if I’d got a goal against Switzerland.

“I know him (Embolo) and he’s kind and very humble. I said ‘respect’ because he didn’t have to do that and stop himself celebrating scoring against Cameroon in the World Cup. But I think we’re pretty similar because I’d have done the same thing.”

It is rarer for those contrasting emotions to play out for two players on the same side in one game. But that was the case at Dublin’s Aviva stadium in September 2024, when Declan Rice and Jack Grealish scored the goals in England’s 2-0 UEFA Nations League win against the Republic of Ireland.

Jack Grealish celebrates his goal against Republic of Ireland (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The game was the first in charge for interim England manager Lee Carsey (a former Republic of Ireland international who was born in Birmingham but eligible to play for them via an Irish grandmother), and his team were loudly booed by the home support.

Those jeers were especially loud for Rice and Grealish, who both represented Ireland at junior level, with the Arsenal midfielder even playing three senior friendly internationals in the green shirt before switching allegiance in 2019.

“A lot of the Irish fans have an opinion and a feeling towards me, which is absolutely fine because I made that decision to switch as a kid,” Rice told BBC Radio 5 Live after the game.

“But you could see in my goal, there’s no animosity from my side. I didn’t want to celebrate. My nan and grandad were Irish. It would have been disrespectful because obviously I played three times for Ireland and I had such an amazing time here.

“It would have been wrong of me, so that’s why I chose not to. It’s nice to score but also it was a bit of a weird feeling.”

Grealish, meanwhile, was capped by Ireland to Under-21 level but made his decision to represent England in 2016. He said he expected a frosty reception in Dublin — one banner called the pair ‘snakes’ — but did not feel aggrieved by it.

“It was what me and Dec expected. I said before the game, I think it is different,” said Grealish, who celebrated his goal.

“Me and Dec have nothing bad to say, we both enjoyed our time with Ireland. I certainly did, and I have a lot of Irish in my family, so there is no bad blood from my side.”

Former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino was born in London but went the other way, representing Ireland (through his adoptive grandparents) and scoring against the Three Lions.

Cascarino netted a header in a Euro 1992 qualifying match at Dublin’s Lansdowne Road in 1990. Ireland, managed by World Cup-winning former England player Jack Charlton, held the visitors to a 1-1 draw, and Cascarino had no qualms about his reaction.

“I don’t think I have ever celebrated a goal as hard,” he wrote in a 2020 column for UK newspaper The Times. “It was 30 years ago but I still remember rising and heading the ball into the bottom corner.

“One of the only pictures I have at home is of Andy Townsend and me after I scored that goal: you look at Andy and he’s chasing me like an 11-year-old that has just won a cup final and I have sprinted off like Usain Bolt — it is something special.

“We dominated the 1-1 draw and I had the drunkest night I have ever had in Dublin — and that is saying something.”

Cascarino might have enjoyed scoring against the country of his birth, but others seek to compartmentalise.

When Polish-born striker Lukas Podolski scored twice for Germany against his country of birth during Euro 2008, he admitted the 2-0 win left him feeling torn.

Lukas Podolski felt torn playing for Germany against Poland (Timm Schamberger/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

“This was a difficult and emotional game for me,” he told FourFourTwo magazine in 2022. “Both the German and Polish press focused on me before it, building the pressure, and there were so many Polish fans in the ground.

“I can’t say it was simply a regular match for me, but I just tried to focus on playing the right way.

“In the end, I got two goals and we won. I didn’t celebrate, but I’m a professional and had to do what was expected of me. I support Poland on every other occasion. I was emotional before and after the game, but for 90 minutes I came to do my job for Germany.”

Not every player lets it weigh on them. Desire Doue is set to shine for France at this World Cup, but his older brother Guela, born in Angers, represents Ivory Coast.

When he scored against France in a warm-up game earlier this month before the tournament, the 23-year-old Guela, who was not part of the France youth set-up, leapt in the air and kicked a corner flag in celebration.

For others, there are subtle ways to acknowledge their heritage. Lamine Yamal is already a superstar for Spain, but in a nod to his roots, the 18-year-old has the flags of Morocco and Equatorial Guinea, where his parents hail from, stitched onto his boots.

Yamal will hope he can help Spain to glory this summer. That is what Mesut Ozil achieved with Germany in 2014, justifying the Gelsenkirchen-born playmaker’s choice to play for them instead of Turkey, the homeland of his parents.

“My family and I will always be Turkish but I was born and I live in Germany,” he once said. “I feel more comfortable in a Germany shirt.”

Ozil barely celebrated the goal he scored against Turkey in 2010 during a 2-0 Euros qualifying win.

Instead, there was a faint smile and some brief high-fives — respect shown, satisfaction acknowledged.

There is no playbook for human emotion, but that seems to be the trend for players who find themselves thrust into that very public but personal situation.