exactly, I have seen people question his status. Was hoping someone could help me clean it up. Looks like he's good too go. Wonder if he turned down Bradenton to stay with Revs Academy?
http://www.fcdallas.com/news/2011/10/hispanic-heritage-mexico Nice article about FCD's youth players with Mexican heritage. I think Ruben Luna still leads the reserve league in goals............
Yes, but he's specifically been quoted as saying the US is his first choice. Whether he sticks it out for four plus years, nobody knows.
How in the world is the USA his first choice when he's not even American? lol. The guy doesn't even have the right to say that.
Sure whatever you want to think, but he said the US was his first choice. We will see how long that lasts, but I guess the DRC isn't too attractive and England likely will never happen.
He wouldn't be eligible for US youth teams right now even if he was an American citizen. (He'll be 24 in February) So the relevancy of Steve Zakuani to these threads is essentially zero, as he's: A) Not American B) Not a Youth But hey..........this is Creighton's rodeo. If he wants to include Steve on his list, so be it.
Well, TBH, this is why we created this...no? To let the dreamers dream and keep it our of other discussions.
Rafael Baca of San Jose? Went to college at Loyola Marymount, but was born in Mexico. Very tidy little midfielder. He's an '89.
http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/soccer/post/_/id/6318/guardian-angel-leads-rafael-baca-to-mls perfect for this thread!
Alright you don't like Zakuani, well you really won't like this one..... Guy has four goals in ten games in qualifying, which isn't freak out impressive, except he's basically clutch city. Three of his four goals have come in 1-0 wins, and he has Armenia on the cusp of a playoff. Ar-freakin-menia. He's not a citizen. He's already cap tied But he lived in this country from the time he was something like five years old until his mid twenties and frankly, I think he'd be the #1 on our depth chart.
If Yura wasn't wanted by Armenia, and had stuck around MLS for a long time.........he would have possibly become an option for the senior USMNT. But the USYNTs never had a prayer. This will probably be the case with Danny Mwanga. If he's not wanted by the Congo, sticks around MLS, and becomes a citizen.............the senior national team has a chance at him. But I don't think it'll all happen for him before the Olympics. One benefit of having the centralized development academy system is that we can identify these players earlier. But to be honest, we identified Andy Najar at about as early of an age as possible................and will undoubtedly lose him. Same with Bryan Leyva. Uruguay is well aware of Diego Fagundez. We'll probably lose him too. Our hope for players of this ilk is that the national teams they are eligible for aren't paying attention, and the players manage to slip thru their cracks. One nation not asleep at the wheel is Mexico. Just come to the Dallas Cup or other tournaments here in Texas/California/etc. Their scouts are ubiquitous. If people think Mexico is gonna ignore a talent like Raul Mendiola, they're crazy. And there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing. The USSF can contact him and say........hey, we'd be interested in you years down the line when your citizenship comes thru. And then the player has to decide whether to sit there and wait. Very few of them do.
I dunno--FIFA's eligibility rules refer to "nationality" rather than citizenship. Even with American nationality, I think he'd have to live here for a couple years or have an ancestor born here in order to be eligible to play for the US.
See, this is a great thread. Whenever someone pops off about eligibility we can just direct them here and be done with it. Excellent thread here.
I'll just reiterate that this still makes absolutely no sense. That somebody like Yura had such trouble just points out really obvious flaws in our immigration system. Christ, he was here what, 18 years at least? Most of that as a minor.
It still takes some effort from the person in question though. If he (or his parents) wanted to become a citizens he had plenty of time to, despite the flaws in the system.
I'm aware, I just think if you spent 13 years here as a minor, you should be eligible for citizenship at 18, regardless of your parents and provided you meet the other requirements (test, language etc).
Well, if Yura really wanted to be a citizen, he would have had no problem sticking around for 5 or 6 years more to become one. And then he would have been set for life. The immigration system isn't, and shouldn't be set up specifically for soccer players.
I never said it was or should be. I think this should apply to everybody. I just don't see the value in a system where a person can spend 13, 15, 17 or whatever years as a minor here and not be eligible for citizenship once it is finally within their control. That's broken.
Well if he or his parents never bothered to go through the process. It's not like the government said, no, you must wait forever and there will be no end for you. If Yura and his parents had done the proper process to become a citizen, he would be one. The only thing that stopped him was his own families apparent laziness. Unless of course I don't know something about them, which is possible.
If that's the case, then it isn't his fault (or the hundreds of thousands of kids in the US who have gone through this or are about too). If (please note, I'm saying "if") an immigrant's parents were content to renew their work visa, I don't understand why the kid's naturalization chances should suffer for it while he had no control over it. He/she's "done the time." Doesn't make sense to add more barriers if they meet the other requirements.
It is within their control. They can go thru the citizenship process. I understand what you're suggesting, but I can say with near certainty that a policy like that will not be enacted in my lifetime. They don't have a policy like that in places like Mexico either. Just to pick a place................