LONDON - Britain's press reached for the soccer analogy to explain why a foreigner had been picked to head the Bank of England, the country's central bank.
Reporting the surprise announcement that Mark J. Carney, the governor of the Bank of Canada, is to take on the key financial post, newspapers commented that it was much like appointing an outsider to head a top soccer team, as long as he was the best man for the job.
The Guardian dubbed Mr. Carney “the Treasury's Sven-Göran Eriksson, †referring to the Swedish soccer manager who guided the England national team from 2001 to 2006.
Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph, in one of many media commentaries that praised the government's choice, acknowledged that some “will wonder why we need to be bringing in a foreigner in the first place. This not premier league football after all.â€
Reuters explained to its international readers that “Britons are used to not worrying about nationality and embrac ing professional credentials instead, allowing foreigners to run their national football teams as well as top companies.†It said the choice could usher central bankers into the realm of globe-trotting elites that dominate the top jobs in business and sports.
Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, hailed the extraordinary and admirable choice of a foreigner such as Mr. Carney to assume the country's most important official position, “even if Canadians are not very foreign.â€
He cautioned, however, “It is a gamble because a foreign national will be assuming a job that is inescapably political and, in the current difficult economic and financial circumstances of the U.K., even more political than usual.â€
The Daily Express, which was not alone in describing the 47-year-old Mr. Carney as a George Clooney lookalike, said he was unlikely to fail the Britishness test when he made his application for citizenship - “His wife is E nglish, he studied at Oxford and for many years worked in London.â€
The Daily Telegraph introduced its readers to Diana, the central banker's British wife, by describing her as an eco-warrior and outspoken critic of global financial institutions who had expressed sympathy for the Occupy movement.
Mr. Carney will embark on his new post with considerable cross-party goodwill. Leaders of the opposition Labour party were falling over each other to welcome his appointment.
“In my view this is a good choice, a good judgment, and his experience will be invaluable,†according to Ed Balls, Labour's financial spokesman in the House of Commons.
Mr. Carney will not be the first Canadian to hold a top post in the British establishment. Andrew Bonar Law, Conservative prime minister from 1922 to 1923, was born in New Brunswick in 1858 (although sticklers will point out that was nine years before the province joined the Canadian Confederation).
Ill-health cut short his term, which lasted only 209 days.
As for other foreigners in top jobs, London's Metro newspaper recalled Mr. Eriksson's “very conservative attitude on the pitch†in the six years that he managed the England soccer team.
Recalling the Swede's mixed record, Metro said it was hoped Mr. Carney's reign as governor of the Bank of England “will be significantly less tumultuous, and ultimately more successful, than Eriksson's fruitless time in charge of the Three Lions.â€
