Immigrants Help Make America Winners and Our Sports Teams Great
Through the years, immigrants have been essential players helping American sports teams thrive and win. “In the 1950 World Cup, the U.S. team won an improbable victory over England on a goal by Haitian-born forward Joe Gaetjens”
Our nation’s strength, in particular when it concerns athletics, comes from recruiting the best of the best. And without our unique distinction as a nation of immigrants, the fact is we just wouldn’t be as competitive in sports. It was true during the 2026 Winter Olympics, and it’s no different during the ongoing 2026 World Cup games.
BRINGING TOGETHER THE BEST OF THE BEST THE WORLD HAS TO OFFER
“Six players on the U.S. men’s national soccer team at the 2026 World Cup were born outside the country. More than half the 26 men on the roster hold dual citizenship,” Newsweek reports. Gio Reyna, born in the United Kingdom, was one of the youngest U.S. players to feature in a senior match in 20 years at the time of his 2020 U.S. men’s national soccer team debut. Fellow teammates Antonee Robinson and Sebastian Berhalter were also born in the U.K. Other players also hail from Mexico, Germany, and the Netherlands.
“Many players are also first- or second-generation Americans of diverse descent,” notes The Wall Street Journal. “Forward Haji Wright was born to a father from Ghana and mother from Liberia. Striker Ricardo Pepi’s parents immigrated from Mexico. Attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic’s grandfather was a Croatian emigrant.” Folarin Balogun was born in the U.S. while his Nigerian-born mom was visiting from the U.K. During the team’s victorious match against Paraguay, he became “the first U.S. men’s national player to score two goals in a World Cup game since the inaugural tournament in 1930,” ESPN noted.
“This is nothing new: In the 1950 World Cup, the U.S. team won an improbable victory over England on a goal by Haitian-born forward Joe Gaetjens,” Reason said. It’s not just soccer, either. U.K.-born OG Anunoby was instrumental in the New York Knicks winning its first NBA title in more than 50 years. “The pool for talented athletes is global,” Reason continues. “Approximately 25 percent of MLB players are foreign-born, with the Dominican Republic the leading country of origin.”
Nearly 17% of the most recent U.S. Olympic team had direct immigrant roots. Team USA made sports history earlier this year after winning an astounding 12 gold medals in Milan – a national record for the Winter Olympics games. Notably, Alysa Liu – the daughter of a Chinese dissident who helped organize pro-democracy demonstrations after the Tiananmen Square massacre and eventually became a political refugee in the U.S. – made history as the “first American female singles figure skater to win a gold medal in 24 years,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time.
THE SPIRIT CAN’T BE DAMPENED BY ANTI-IMMIGRANT GOVERNMENT RANTS
When immigrant roots run deep, it should be no surprise at all that our national pastimes aren’t immune from the regressive nature of anti-immigrant policies and attitudes. While soccer fans all over the world have been eagerly awaiting the World Cup games, the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement practices are partially to blame for a lackluster attendance here in the U.S., Florida Immigration Coalition’s Thomas Kennedy noted in his recent guest post at Charting a New Narrative on Immigration.
“The lack of interest in the World Cup is not surprising,” he wrote earlier this month. “The vibes are off. The Trump administration seems to be doing everything in its power to make the United States as unwelcoming a country as it can be as the tournament begins.”
On a micro level, Balogun – the star player who was critical in the American team’s 4-1 victory over Paraguay and scored those historic goals during the match – could have theoretically been ineligible to play for the American team if the administration’s unconstitutional executive order attacking birthright citizenship had been in place at the time of his birth. Under that un-American policy, “he wouldn’t have automatically received U.S. citizenship since his mom was a temporary visitor,” The Wall Street Journal notes. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on that order any day now.
What also deserves focus is what an Sharpie-scrawled executive order can’t extinguish no matter how the high court rules in the coming days: the values that live inside each and every one of us, as exemplified by the many Americans who have embraced – literally – visitors able to attend World Cup games in the United States.
“Unlike the 1994 World Cup, this one’s all being documented and displayed on social media — the University of Kansas marching band playing the Algerian national anthem to welcome the team, throngs of Iraqi fans beating darbuka drums on Boston Common, Belgian and Egyptian fans dancing arm-in-arm in the streets of Seattle,” reports The Boston Globe, noting foreign visitors celebrating their respective national teams in harmony with U.S. fans. “After watching our divisive politics from abroad, they actually came here, and met open, everyday Americans.”
CONTRARY TO OUR OWN GOVERNMENT, ORDINARY AMERICANS ARE WELCOMING THE WORLD WITH OPEN ARMS
Whether or not American fans realize it, they are actually rebuking the ugly, exclusionary vision currently dictating federal policies.
“The America we are experiencing right now is the America we were promised growing up,” Scottish visitor Laura Lawson said in a TikTok about the Boston community’s welcoming. “And to be totally honest, that was not the America we were expecting when we came here. We were very apprehensive. I was genuinely anxious. We were expecting to be met by ICE agents, aggressive police and the political climate that we see on the news.”
“What she found instead couldn’t be ‘further from the truth,’” The Boston Globe continued. “The Bostonians are something special …. My faith is restored in the United States of America.”