Cameroonian basketball player Joel Embiid has obtained French nationality, which opens the way to his possible integration into the French team in view of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. He had approached the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) as early as 2016, but it hadn’t sparked widespread enthusiasm among French players.
Cameroonian basketball player Joel Embiid obtained French nationality, according to a July 4 decree published in the Official Journal, which paves the way for his possible integration into the French team in view of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Among the people who “are naturalized French, reinstated in French nationality and seized by the collective effect attached to the acquisition of French nationality by their parents”, appears his name.
One of the NBA’s star players
Embiid, 28, is one of the NBA’s star players. He has spent his entire career in the best league on the planet since his debut in 2014 in the jersey of Philadelphia where he averages 26 points and 11 rebounds per game. The Sixers center finished as the top scorer last regular season with an average of 30.6 points per game, but he was plagued by injuries during the playoffs and the Sixers were eliminated in the conference semifinals by Miami (4-2).
He had approached the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) as early as 2016, but this had not aroused general enthusiasm among French players, Olympic vice-champion last summer in Tokyo. At the end of June, the general manager of the Blues Boris Diaw, himself a former NBA player, had indicated that a naturalization of Embiid would not guarantee him direct access to the France team.
“The day it will be obtained, it will be another subject to make a selection and to take the players who have the capacity to carry this team of France while remaining in the state of mind of the group”, had declared Diaw.