We all know that football is the most popular participation sport in the world, and that in all countries where football is played, millions, tens of millions, are playing football as soon as they can walk.
Countries like Brazil, Argentina, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, even England have produced brilliant footballer after brilliant footballer...
But what causes a country to just suddenly produce a genius? A player who has grown up in the same background, with the same upbringing, the same advantages and disadvantages as all his countrypeople, all his peers
How can Romania not produce a true world class player before or since, but produce Geogri Hagi?
Why has Hungary not produced another Puskas?
When is the next George Best going to come out of Northern Ireland?
Is Hristo Stoichkov the last (and only) Bulgarian football legend we'll ever see?
Is Liberia teeming with undiscovered George Weah's?
Did these players only look SO good exactly because their countrmen were so much worse than them? (though most, if not all, played at the highest level in foreign countries, won european cups and led their international sides to levels not seen before or since)
Even if so - how did just ONE player, just one time, suddenly get SO much better than everyone else?
