(1)I'm not sure what you mean by this. Footballers are judged on talent, not by their place of birth, so why do French players have no chance at Barcelona or Madrid?
(2)As for all the rest. I think Pogba just wants out of United or a pay rise, in my opinion his ideal choice would be Juventus again, he only wants to go to Madrid because of Zidane, Zidane won't be there this time next year, there's a good chance it will be Jose and then we'll see how much Pogba wants Madrid.
Hazard - No matter what, as spend his best years at Chelsea.
Henry - Spent his best years at Arsenal.
Eriksen - Spent his best years at Spurs.
(3)But for all those, i can name Viera/Nedved/Davids/Scholes/Giggs/Keane/Gerrard/Del Piero/Rooney/Pirlo, modern day non-latin legends who recently retired who never had any ambition to play for Madrid/Barcelona, even Beckham never wanted to leave United.
(4)The pull of Spain as always been Madrid, Barcelona wasn't all that glam for players pre-Ronaldihno era. Sure Barcelona have had some great players play for the club, but Barcelona didn't have the pull of a Manchester United/Milan/Juventus/Bayern/Liverpool/Madrid pre-2003.
Even the pull of Madrid wasn't as great as what it is now pre-galactico era, after the galactico era 2005-08 they had many players reject them, but got glammed back up 2008-2009 mainly because C.Ronaldo publicly 'dreaming' how wanted to leave Manchester United (best team in Europe at that time) for Madrid and they are still living off that glam now due to recent success.
It will go back to being flat again, if it can happen to Manchester United (biggest brand in football) it can happen to Madrid (2nd biggest brand in football).
(1) I didn't mean that french players can't hope to go to Real/Barça. I tried to say that Real and Barça (less recently with Abidal and his liking of french youngsters) are selective clubs. Therefore, most of them will just settle for Bundesliga for the playing time bar Bayern and PL clubs. It is not that french players prefer playing in England than in Madrid or Barça. It is just far easier. And they know they can join a midtable club in PL, win lot of money compared to a midtable club in a rival league and they'll be easily spotted if they do well. But give them the choice, i'm pretty certain most of them would pick Real/Barça over PL clubs.
(2) Yeah, when they feel like they need the final push/spark in their career, they instinctively battle to go to Real/Barça. It says it all. Despite being legends in their clubs, massive PL clubs (Tottenham not so much), they try their best to go to the very top clubs.
(3) Yeah, you talk about Italian and British who don't emigrate that much and players who were playing for some of the most financially potent clubs. Despite that, let's see what some of these players said about it :
Totti said it was very hard to refuse Real Madrid.
Vieira said this : Vieira himself has admitted he was close to joining the Liga powerhouses that summer.
"I was really close to leaving for Madrid the year before I left" he said.
"I didn't see any reason to leave, I don't know if it was lack of courage to go."
"If I knew I was leaving the year after, I was going to Madrid."
Pirlo : It may be hard to believe that arguably one of the modern game’s greatest regista, Andrea Pirlo, harbors certain regrets about his playing career. Although his trophy cabinet is flooded with domestic and European trophies while dawning the jerseys of two of Italy’s biggest clubs, Milan and Juve, along with having hoisted a World Cup, the bearded wonder did have one wish he would have loved to have fulfilled. In a interview with Spanish media outlet Marca Plus (via CdS), Pirlo revealed that he had an opportunity to join one of the world’s most renowned football clubs but his contract commitments did not permit him to leave:
In 2010, I could have became a Real Madrid player. There was Capello as manager and many players contacted me to try and convince me to go there. But I was under contract at Milan and there was nothing that could have been done to leave. They were 10 years at Milan in which I won everything that could be won and I am happy to have played for three of Italy’s biggest clubs. I am disappointed to not have played for great club like Real Madrid. I would have really loved to have played for Barcelona also.
Gerrard : Gerrard was tempted by Real Madrid's offer
In May, 2005, Real made an offer of 30 million euros. But the offer was rejected by Liverpool, who wanted 45 million euros, plus De la Red, Arbeloa and Javí García, in exchange for their captain. Gerrard, who was holidaying in Ibiza, waited patiently as the tense negotiations between the clubs played out. On July 1, he met with then-manager Rafa Benítez to tell him that he was tempted by Madrid's offer. Four days later on July 5, Liverpool released a statement that said that they had made an offer to keep him at Anfield, but Gerrard was not going to accept the offer because his desire was to leave the club.
Gerrard went on to tell UK broadcaster Sky that:
"The last six weeks have been the hardest of my life". However, the situation took an unexpected turn and just four days later, the midfielder renewed his contract with the Reds until 2009.
(4) I totally agree with you on that point but the reality is that now there are some Super Clubs. Real, Barça, Bayern, City, Chelsea, MU, Juventus, PSG, Liverpool.
Those clubs are the one who can afford to attract top players because they have the financial backing. Among those Real, Barça are on a league of their one because they have the most success, the most iconic players, they left legacies. While current players were attracted by previous legacies, the next generation will feed on the current legacies being created.
Current times Juve, MU, Chelsea, PSG, Liverpool and even maybe Bayern don't have that recent legacy. Bayern has had Juup Heynckes treble winning side but it didn't have the impact of CR7 Real Madrid winning 4 CL in 5 years or Messi Barça or Guardiola Barça.
MU has lost their appeal with all their failure to replace Ferguson.
Juve and Liverpool are coming back to their places after years of bad management or corruption scandals. They are the closest to create a legacy (CR7 if he wins with Juve and Liverpool because they are coming back from sporting hell).
Chelsea seem to be happy to win PL from time to time and be a midtable club in CL.
PSG has achieved nothing in Europe under QSI.
City is the english PSG.
Thus, Real and Madrid will keep for the next generations their special pull. Only way to lose it is to pull off a Milan AC (but Real and Barça are too strong financially) or a MU (being mismanaged for almost a decade). And even then, MU can still afford any player in the world.
In a world with FFP which prevents to do a Chelsea (being able to outgun anyone), those Super Clubs, especially Real/Barça, will stay the top dogs for decades.
