Subotic rather offered himself to the German fed, and the public opinion was quite split. He even talked about playing for Germany in public when the DFB hadn't figured out his availability. I think a fed trying lure a player would have done that before, so blame the player, not the fed.
Not trying to blame either the fed or the player. As far as I concerned, players and federations should be making decisions on what they feel will best benefit their interests. My point is that the German fed will take dual nationals who have been nurtured by others if it improves their talent level at a given position. Germany has an outstanding pool, so they do not have to do this very often. As far as the German people being opposed to dual nationals joining their national side, I think you will see similar levels of opposition in countries like the US and Mexico as well.
To permanently cap tie he, he'd need to play in either the Gold Cup, World Cup Qualifiers, World Cup or Confederations Cup.
In case of Subotic, it have been just public interviews with him stating "I want to play for Germany!" Well, I think nobody could blame the fed for checking his availability after that, and expressing some open-mindedness to him. He put the fed under pressure in public, not the other way around. I think Germany's public today is open for dual nationals with both choices; many Germans, not just Dortmund fans, wish Nuri Sahin all the best at Real Madrid, and regard him as "our boy in Madrid" to some point; not as much as Özil or Khedira, but as some kind of a nice 1/3 German, 2/3 Turk. Özil - that's our guy, 2/3 German, 1/3 Turk. Guys like Brooks or whoever, who grew up in Germany, learned to play soccer here, chose a different country early, and never blocked a space at the Germany youth squads for another player - all the best to them, it's their choice. We just don't have the "learned to kick the ball anywhere else, but we could lure him" situation; and we don't like the "played for Germany from U15-U21, and chose Cameroon" situation.
Eh, the situation can change but German central defense seems stocked, stoked and stacked for the next decade - Boateng, Badstuber, Howedes, Hummels, et al. peeking from behind Friedrich, Westermann and Mertesacker.
I'm embarrassed that I'm just now finding out about Brooks. And the only reason I did find out is because I've decided to follow the Bundesliga more this year instead of just the big games and Hertha was on my list of "teams to root for." Looks like I got a bigger reason to watch now after reading all the praise he's getting.
Here is the picture for the first team of Hertha Berlin for 2011/12 Brooks is in the top row all the way on the left. First player in
We pretty desperately need a center back. I can't see Ream upside going beyond Bocanegra (and Carlos has had a great YA career, all things considered). Ream would be very fortunate to do as well as Carlos has in Europe. I personally don't think Ream will do as well. Bocanegra is a great athlete, but at the top levels of soccer (including World Cup), he is considered slow. Same with Ream (from everything I've seen). We need to big guy who is not only technical strong, but fast enough too. That is why losing Subotic hurt so much. We simply don't have anyone near his ability in our system. I hope Brooks is the one.
Hmmm, I'd gladly take two more Bocanegra's at this point. Yeah, on the world cup stage he's pretty average, but then what's after him? Basically Gold Cup quality players. I'd say we have three World Cup level players, guys who might be able to play for some of the big teams or at least not look out of place. Donovan, Howard and Dempsey. Stu Holden and Bradley might have a case, but not right now. So what I'm saying is, we are in a situation where two centerbacks of Bocanegra's quality would be an improvement. I'd love to think Brooks could turn into something better, but for me anyway, I'm just going to consider that a wonderful surprise if it happens.
A new article on Brooks [in German] as he is missing time now with an Achilles problem http://www.berliner-kurier.de/sport...et-fuer-hertha-auf-geld-/-/7168990/8660586/-/
This article just came out. http://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv/talent-brooks-gab-den-bayern-einen-korb-article1224677.html It pretty much says that Brooks turned down a nice contract offer in May from Bayern Munich to instead sign for 4 years with Hertha Berlin.
Here's a quick and dirty translation. Talent Brooks sends Bayern packing 12th July 2011 17.10 clock, BZ With Andreas Ottl, Thomas Power and Christian Lell, there are currently three ex-Bayern-Stars in the Hertha squad. Now it comes out that Hertha talent, central defender John Anthony Brooks (18), almost went in the opposite direction to Munich! At the same time as Hertha's offer in May, the German-American received an inquiry from Bayern. He was to gain game time primarily with the amateurs and then slowly be brought into the professional squad. But the native of Tempelhof opted for Hertha and signed until 2015! Coach Markus Babbel confirmed: ".. Brooks had a huge offer from the the Bavarians, but he chose us and forwent a lot of money" Right now, Brooks is in Berlin rehabbing an Achilles injury but will travel with the team on Sunday to their second training camp in Austria.
Good for him. Bayern are an unbelievably difficult side for a young player to break into. I'm not saying it can't be done, but you had better be a monster talent ready to make an impact on the first team - a particularly tough task for a young center back. Of all of the young yanks in Germany, Brooks is the most interesting to me. Without having seen him play, he is looking like he might end up being a very classy professional center back, but we will have to wait and see. The internet, while dramatically improving our ability to follow youth prospects abroad, does not yet allow us to watch them play in youth or reserve matches abroad regularly, although I did get to watch Adrian Ruelas playing for the Santos Laguna under 20s last spring.
FC Bayern are all drama, all the time. I would almost never recommend a young unproven player go there. If he is getting first team minutes this year, then it will be easier to watch, given Hertha is in the BL1 again.