Xabi Alonso
Alonso in 2011, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: Xabier Alonso Olano
Place of Birth: Tolosa, Spain
Date of Birth: 25 November, 1981
Ethnicity: Spanish, Basque
Xabi Alonso is a Spanish professional footballer and manager. He played for Real Sociedad B, Real Sociedad, Eibar, Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich, and the Spain national team and the Basque Country national team. He is the head coach of Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen, and previously managed Real Sociedad B.
He is of Basque ethnicity. Xabi is the son of Isabel Olano and Periko Alonso (Miguel Ángel Alonso Oyarbide), a footballer who represented Spain as International level. His father was born in Tolosa, Basque Country, Spain. Xabi has stated, “Mi madre es la representación típica del matriarcado vasco” (my mother is the typical representation of Basque matriarchy).
Xabi is married to Nagore Aranburu, with whom he has three children.
Source: http://www.bbc.com
Looks typical British to me (a la, Sam Worthington).
But then again, Basque is located towards the north side of Spain, near France. So his looks wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.
Spain is not Italy where people dramatically change from north to south. They are all genetically similar and have the same ancestors, the ancient Iberians, who were probably related to the Basques, and the Celts.
Even Spain has regional differences. Basques and Catalans (also the Aragonese) have lighter pigmentation on average than all Iberians, both have their own language and culture (ever heard Basque and Catalan separatist movements?). In Catalonia some common surnames like “Bosch” and others reveal a Germanic influence too. Being the richest Spanish regions, Basques Country and expecially Catalonia have attracted people from other parts of Spain, therefore these phenotypical difference is less visible. About Italy, Southerners look more Mediterranean, but if you go south of Rome people don’t “dramatically” change appareance and starts looking Lebanese as you wish.
Average northerns have lighter pigmentation than the rest of the iberians, not only basques and catalans. In fact, the highest proportion of light eyes are always found in Asturias and Galicia.
Everybody focus on the basques and the catalans (and these ones only because of their newly-made separatism based on historical delusions), but oddly enough, the true represent of the iberians, the real iberians, are the asturians. Like the ancient saying goes: “Spain is Asturias, the rest is conquered land”.
You are very wrong. Catalonia is not most richest region, but it is Madrid. And Basque country is not even second by GDP, but fifth. And concerning appearence, the more lighter people from Spain are those from Galicia, in the Northeast, not Catalonia. People use the term “galego” to refer to blonde person in Iberia. Catalonia people are pretty much the same as the rest of spaniards: most have brown hair, some black, some blonde, a few ginger.
Course he does, he’s attractive and light. Just like Claudio Marchisio right? Sorry. Even the light southern europeans look drastically different from light Northern. They have better coloring, better skintones and more harmonious features. Most light British people who can pass as light southern people are mixed just like Beckham. No compare Beckham to the rest of the English football players lmao night and day difference. They’re pasty and rough looking featurise.
It’s like when people claim Northern Italians look like Nordics or Germans. Nah sorry, this is what the MAJORITY of nordics look like.
http://scandinavianguys.tumblr.com/
Can you spot any Claudio Marchisios? No they look very neotenous, pseudo asiatic, and generally have less harmonious features than latins. The difference between latin lights and germanic lights, the germanics have clear harsher features and less gracile. No doubt due to the climate they evolved in. These features in British people more than likely came from the French when they conquered the place.
And I lol’d at “typical british” I guess you’ve never been to Britain. Nothing typical British about Sam. Want to see real pictures of average British people? LOL They don’t have the ugly reputation for nothing.
Check the “What happens in kavos” videos for real average British youth lol
hahah what are you smoking lady?? There are lot of spaniards who could pass as germans, and so vice versa. I kown a greek man who lives in Belgium, and people there think he is native: he is tall, blonde, blue eyed, very pale. Even though belgians are not very tall in general. In same way, I lived in England for a while, and a saw a loot of english with brown hair, brown eyes, and could easy pass as italians or spanish.
Brilliant footballer. Please come back to Liverpool.
Bretons and Welsh share great part of their DNA with the Portuguese, Galician, and Nothern Spaniards, as well as with the Irish, like Colin Farrell for example
Basques have been in Europe for a long long time. Their language is pre-Indo-European. As Europeans, they can look like any other European – depending on the person.
I wish people would stop posting this because it is not correct. Basque’s form their own cluster but are closer to Spanish and Southern French. They are really distant to the Irish and Scots.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34175224
Here is a map of Europe showing where populations cluster. There are plenty of these on the net.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8445/7888154404_fbbbe00962_o.png
Just to reiterate that whether someone is dark haired and dark eyed or blond and blue eyed they will cluster with people of the same nationality. People appear to think that if someone is dark haired and dark eyed they must have a different origin than someone of the same nationality with lighter colouring. This is not correct.
Someone like Colin Farrell will cluster with other Irish people.
http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image5.png
Yes!! Spaniars can have light pigmentation as well as dark, same goes for all southern europe. That diesn’t make them more or less spanish..
Actually he was right .
proof?
He isn’t right and anyone that is familiar with population genetics would know that it is inaccurate.
All Spanish and Portuguese people form their own cluster but they are closest to Southern French and Northern Italians. Populations like the Irish, Scots, Welsh, English are in a cluster with North West Europeans like the Dutch, Norwegians etc.
The most recent study dna study on Britain was the People of the British Isles which was a very finescale study. Here is what it says about any Spanish contribution to Britain.
“There is evidence for only a very small Spanish contribution to the PoBI samples, in contrast to what has been claimed by some authors.”
http://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/nl6.pdf
No, they don’t. You’re referencing early 2000s hypotheses that were totally refuted from the late 2000s onwards. More modern research confirms that Brits are what they are, Northern Europeans, and they have more to do with Scandinavians and Germans than they do with Iberians. The conflation between Iberians and Brits is due to the fact that both groups have high levels of the R1b paternal haplotype, which many researchers assumed incorrectly originated in the Iberian peninsula, though nowadays it is known to have expanded to Western Europe from Eastern Europe.
I don’t think that’s true, but the British are certainly more celtic than they like to think. For some reason a lot of British people are wannabe nordics and viking worshippers which is quite strange considering Germans as well as Scandinavian not only often consider the British ugly but they often try to distance themselves from them by saying they’re not real germanics. British people are like that though. They fetishize everything but their own culture. They romaticize Romans, they romanticize vikings. Now they romanticize all the different ethnicities living in London. Britain should be renamed Cuckhold, The nation.
Did you know that the region in which has more blonde people and blue eyed are the Baltic ones? not scandinavian?
i always thought this guy had an Irish look!
Plenty look like that – but usually with blue eyes.
Xabi’s parents are Periko Alonso (Miguel Ángel Alonso Oyarbide) and Isabel Olano. Periko is a former footballer who represented Spain as Internationa level, and he was born in Tolosa, Basque Country, Spain.
http://www.revistavanityfair.es/la-revista/articulos/tercer-grado-con-e-xito-a-xabi-alonso-el-futbolista-ma-s-sexy-del-mundo/17435 (spanish)
Xabi’s has stated: “Mi madre es la representación típica del matriarcado vasco” (my mother is the typical representation of Basque matriarchy). His family background is very Basque.