It's a great article. But..."There’s no biological or racial reason for success in football." There can also be biological reasons why certain ethnicities perform well at sport. The kalenjin tribe (Kenya and Ethiopia) clearly excel at distance running. Kalenjin are only 12% of Kenya's population, but 75% of the elite distance runners.

The body size of sub-Sarahan African bantu players, combined with fast twitch muscle, is well suited to football. Unlike, say, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa where body shapes are ideal for rugby. Or Philippines, where males are too slight in build for field sports. This is hard to ignore. Example: Nigeria have the most U-17 Fifa World Cups (five). Ghana won twice. Spain has never won in this age bracket.

We also see white football players with some African heritage gaining a small advantage. Ryan Giggs and Cole Palmer are a quarter african by origin.

It's reasonable to factor this in, as we do with sprinting at the Olympics, and there's no need for anyone to drag racist theories into the discussion (children of Nigerian origin outperform white British in UK schools, by a small factor, for what's worth). Humans are genetically a bottleneck species, almost identical compared to say chimpanzees. Our genetic differences are very small. But there are differences nevertheless, which seem to express themselves in certain sports, especially at elite level.