A couple of weeks ago, two brothers had a showdown.
The stage was the Derby d’Italia, the storied rivalry between two giants of Italian football: Inter Milan and Juventus.
The brothers were Inter striker Marcus Thuram and his younger sibling Khephren Thuram, fast becoming Juventus’s go-to holding midfielder.
What made this even more special is that the brothers are sons of football legend Lilian Thuram, one of the greatest defenders of his generation, and a World Cup winner with France.
On the day of the face-off, Lilian was in the stands, and what an emotional roller-coaster ride it must have been for him. His sons both scored within minutes of each other, in a thrilling match of fluctuating fortunes. A few days later, they were playing together for France in a World Cup qualifier.
Watching the face-off unfold, I was struck by how deeply and how frequently sporting success runs through families.
A common misconception is that children of elite footballers are rarely as successful as their parents. This impression is bolstered by the idea that great footballers often come from poor families, which gives them a certain hunger to succeed; while their children, raised amid extreme wealth, lack such drive.
Examples of great footballers whose children did not quite follow in their footsteps include David Beckham, whose son Romeo Beckham is a soccer player in the US Major League; Zinedine Zidane, whose four sons play in the lower divisions in Spain; and Johan Cruyff, whose son Jordi Cruyff had a decent career playing for clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United, but was overshadowed by his father’s spectacular legacy throughout.
There is a fundamental fallacy in this theory: the players named above are some of the greatest in the history of the sport. Their legacies are unique even among their elite contemporaries. It will likely be generations before the records they have set are broken.
Instead, ask how many elite footballers had parents who were also footballers, and one sees a very different picture. The footballing world is full of players whose fathers also played, and who have far outshone their fathers.
World Cup and European League champion Xabi Alonso, who lit up clubs such as Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, is the son of Periko Alonso, who appeared in 20 matches for Spain in the early 1980s.
Sergio Busquets, who redefined the role of the defensive midfielder with Barcelona and Spain, is the son of Carles Busquets, who spent most of his career as a second-choice goalkeeper at Barcelona.
The legendary English midfielder Frank Lampard’s father, Frank Lampard Sr, was a left-back who was capped only twice by England (Frank Jr went on to play 106 games for his country, many as captain).
Cesare Maldini may have been an important player for AC Milan who went on to play a few matches for Italy, but he is more famous as a coach, and as the father of Paolo Maldini, one of the greatest defenders in the history of the game.
There are hundreds of such examples, but perhaps the most celebrated of these at the moment is Manchester City’s prolific forward Erling Haaland, whose father Alf-Inge Haaland, an infamously hard-tackling defender, also played for Manchester City in the 1990s.
It is a question of sweet-spots, really. Talent can expect to beget more talent. But an exceptional legacy is built to last; it isn’t soon outshone.