My country, 'Tis of thee

What struck Spore Sprout most about the otherwise forgettable match between France and Mexico (Group A June 17) was at the beginning when La Marseillaise was played.  As the camera panned across the faces of the France players, some singing the national anthem and some not, millions of television viewers could see tears streaming down the face of Patrice Evra, the captain of France.

Why the tears and emotion?  Spore Sprout thinks he knows.

Patrice is a self-made Frenchman, in that he chose to be French (over being Senegalese).  Is it any surprise that a man who chose his nationality could love it more than another born willy nilly into it?

Similarly, Jong Tae-se 张大世,  captain of the North Korea team who is a South Korean by descent, born and bred and living and working in Japan,  chose to be a citizen of North Korea.  He cried when the North Korea national anthem was played before the match with Brazil (Group G June 15). 

This is how Guillermo Franco (a former Argentine citizen who plays for Mexico) put it:

I'm Mexican.  I feel 100 percent Mexican since the day I was naturalized.  I made the decision to be Mexican.  I didn't decide where I was born -- God made that decision.  But I made the decision to become Mexican and I feel proud of that.  The opportunities that country has shown me, the love -- there are a lot of reasons why I tipped my heart towards Mexico.

Do we forget something important when we criticize our sportsmen and sportswomen who are new compatriots for being less than "true blue Singaporean"?