I am reading a new book, Superclass, that talks about the nature of the most powerful people on earth (there are about 6,000 of these individual super-powers), and how they affect history. Although I have just started the book, it is already obvious that power is most often aided by money or political position.

Unless you are a superb sportsperson.

Poland (my home country) and Germany played their first match of UEFA2008 on Monday. Poland lost 0 — 2, which is in line with tradition since they haven’t ever, apparently, beaten Germany (except in the world wars, and with a lot of help!).

What made this match interesting for me, though, was that the two goals for the German side were actually scored by a Pole. He has been living in Germany since the age of two, but he has a Polish surname (Podanski), and speaks the language.

So in theory, had his family not decided to emigrate, and if he was playing for Poland, the score of the match could have gone the other way. (Of course, I will concede that it is highly possible that the training he received while playing for Germany was superior to the training he would have received if he had stayed in Poland, and therefore he might not have been such a good player without his German background.)
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You can read the rest of this post on Thought Leader, where it originally appeared.