Quite interesting.
"I have always been English, ever since I emigrated from England and since the kids in Canada beat me up at the age of twelve for having an East London Cockney accent. I thank them for the cockney taunts because the beatings turned me on to boxing. But on a serious note Canada has been kind to me."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/566535.stm
He really grew up in Canada. He's Canadian.
If he was canadian why would he come to england and fight under the british flag even though he got booed at the bruno fight?
Im fron England not the U.S.
I never said you were. My point is this is such a vague issue, with millions of examples like Lewis. Everyone is happy to look the other way when it suits. At this year's Olympics there was an athlete representing the States who had previously won medals for Kenya. France's winning goal at Euro 2000 was scored by a born and bred Argentine.
I don't count Bob Fitzsimmons as a Brit, seeing as he left at a young age and never returned, learned to box in New Zealand, and eventually became an American citizen. As for Lennox, he was born in England, lived here til his early teens, and regards himself as English, so I don't see the point of all for this fuss.
Lennox Lewis representing the French speaking nation of Great Britain.
Wooo.....Team GB....go.
I don't remember many complaints about all the foreign-born athletes who competed for the US at the last Olympics.
No, if you move to Canada when you are 7, live there for most of your life, move to Britain for a few years, get famous and move to America...then you are a Canadian.
The fact is he English. He was born in England, therefore he is English. End of story.
Owen Hargreaves is NOT English
where you are born in where you from as far as im concerned there are special cases where you can make exceptions but on the whole where you are born is where you are from
Cool. :D
Based on the arguments I've just read people like Owen Hargreaves,John Barnes or Linford Christie could not really be called British...
"Having moved to England as a boy, Barnes was noticed by Watford whilst playing as a schoolboy for non-league Sudbury Court. "
"Christie was born in Saint Andrew, Jamaica and in Jamaica he was brought up by his grandmother. He followed his parents, who had emigrated five years before, to England at the age of seven"
"Hargreaves is the youngest of three children born to Margaret and Colin Hargreaves who had migrated to Canada at the start of the eighties from the United Kingdom. His father played football for the Bolton Wanderers youth side and also for the Calgary Kickers of the Canadian Soccer League. He has two brothers, Darren and Neil. His eldest brother, Darren, represented Canada at youth level."
Is Owen Hargreaves the greatest football(soccer) player to come out of Canada then?
Owen Hargreaves is NOT English
where you are born in where you from as far as im concerned there are special cases where you can make exceptions but on the whole where you are born is where you are from
Based on the arguments I've just read people like Owen Hargreaves,John Barnes or Linford Christie could not really be called British...
"Having moved to England as a boy, Barnes was noticed by Watford whilst playing as a schoolboy for non-league Sudbury Court. "
"Christie was born in Saint Andrew, Jamaica and in Jamaica he was brought up by his grandmother. He followed his parents, who had emigrated five years before, to England at the age of seven"
"Hargreaves is the youngest of three children born to Margaret and Colin Hargreaves who had migrated to Canada at the start of the eighties from the United Kingdom. His father played football for the Bolton Wanderers youth side and also for the Calgary Kickers of the Canadian Soccer League. He has two brothers, Darren and Neil. His eldest brother, Darren, represented Canada at youth level."
Is Owen Hargreaves the greatest football(soccer) player to come out of Canada then?
Lennox is a man of many nations. why people get their knickers in a twist over the issue is beyond me.
It's usually the fat hotdog eating yanks that always bring it up.