Issue concerning the mercenaries of International football

[Soccerfever]

Hi all!

I know that this subject has already been discussed in the past but the fact of the matter is that as time goes by,football is improving in most parts of the world step by step,not at the same rythm for each country but still it's on going.So with this being said,there should be less foreigners playing for a certain national team but it does not seem to be the case as decent national sides are using foreigners to help the national team improve.These players are mostly from Brazil,some from Argentina and some from Nigeria...but other countries have them too.

The ones I know:

1)Lucio Wagner, a Brazilian born playing for Bulgaria
2)Eduardo Da Silva, A Brazilian born playing for Croatia
3)Marcos Senna (WC'06), A Brazilian born playing for Spain
4)Marco Aurélio,A Brazilian born playing for Turkey.He now goes by the name of Mehmet Aurélio.
5)Francileudo Santos (WC'06), A Brazilian born playing for Tunisia
6)Zinha (WC'06), A Brazilian born playing for Mexico
7)Deco (WC'06), A Brazilian born playing for Portugal
8)Alessandro Santos(Alex) (WC'02 and '06), A Brazilian born playing for Japan but his case his somehow different as didn't move to Japan for footballing reasons...
9) Mauro Camoranesi (WC'06), An Argentinian playing for Italy due to the fact that is grandfather was Italian.He even admitted that eventough he plays for Italy,he still feels 100% Argentinian.Now if he's not a mercenary,then I don't know what is!
10) There is this Argentinian player who played for Mexico at the 2002 World Cup,forgot his name....

Here are a few players who no longer play for some countries(last few years):

-Jose Clayton(Brazilian-Tunisia) WC'98, WC'02.
-Luis Oliveira(Brazilian-Belgium) WC'98.
-Wagner Lopes(Brazilian- Japan) WC'98.
-Emmanuel Olisadebe(Nigerian-Poland) WC'02.
-David Regis(Frenchman-United States) WC'98 and WC'02(remained on the bench).Funny thing is that during the 1998 World Cup in France,he was in the starting eleven and couldn't even speak english nor understand it...what a disgrace!

There have been some failed attempts too:

-Salomon Kalou wanted to speed up his naturalization procedures so he could be available to play for the Netherlands at the last World Cup instead of playing for his birth country(Ivory Coast) while his brothe Bonaventure Kalou plays with the Ivory Coast national team.
-Mohammed Zidan(Mainz 05) wanted to play for Denmark after playing club football there for awhile but he changed his mind seeing that the law in Denmark insist that you must live atleast 9 years in the country if you want to become a citizen.He's Egyptian.
-Ailton.....Who can forget this guy?After beeing overlooked by both Brazil and Germany,he was seconds away from singing a contract(yes,just like club football!) that would have seen him play for Qatar and he would have been paid if he had signed .....

And now Amauri,again,a Brazilian,wants to play for Italy,He plays for
Palermo if I'm correct.

I'm sure I'm missing a ton!

I don't get it,some great players never had the chance or will never get the chance to play in a big tourney for their respective country(Ryan Giggs,George Weah,Eidur Gudjohnssen(sp?),Mohammed Kalon) and I didn't hear any of these players committing suicide because of that(like one must absolutely play for a national team no matter what.) or becoming crazy.

But don't get me wrong.If a player was born in a certain country,then left at a young age to another country, he can play for his adopted country, regardless of the color of his skin or where he's from.What I think is wrong is when a player leaves is home country to play his club football somewhere(without ever representing a national team) and wants the citizenship of the country he know lives in to play in a big tourney knowing that he has zero chances of being called to the national team of his birth.I"m totally aginst it if the player involved left the country of his birth for footballing reasons.

I mean come on!This has got to end one day somehow!What will future World Cups or any other national tourney will look like if this trend goes on?Seriously!If football giants like France,Spain,Portugal does so,then the smaller national sides will try to do so aswell seeing as this is their only chance to become competitive on the world stage(Big teams are doing it,as a smaller team,let's do it too!).

Add this to the fact that these players are taking spots on the national team that belong to players who are more deserving of a place on the national team(the ones born and raised).By taking foreigners in the national team, it also produces less genuine role models for the kids to relate to.You see, the way I see it,playing for your national team should be an honor.To represent your country,to give everything you have on the pitch for your country,to sign it's national anthem just before kick off of a match(some things that many mercenaries just can't do!), to wear the national team jersey are a few things that are untouchable,it's a privilege.It's not club football.The flag of a country(any country) is unique and sacred.

If you ask me,I'd rather support a NT that sucks but who is actually fielding players who have a link with the country they are representing than supporting a better NT maid of players who are just looking for a shellter in the team to play international football because they weren't good enough to make it in the team they really belong in.

What's the point of playing international football if some of the players on the field are not from the countries being represented on that same field?It doesn't make sense.

FIFA should start worrying about this issue because we still see this type of behavior every now and then after all the money spent by certain FAs to promote the sport and trying to produce decent players.

Does anyone feel the same way about this?Wanna know what some of you people think about this matter...let's hear it!

[Sagy]

I find the current rules reasonable. If you haven't played for a national team you should be able to play for any country for which you have a citizenship. I also find the under 21 rule reasonable, if you have a dual citizenship at the time you play for a U-x national team you should be able to play for the other national team provide you declare so before you turn 21.

The problem, as you pointed in the Ailton/Qatar case, is that some footballers are getting a preferential treatment when it comes to citizenship (e.g. being paid, fast tracked, rules are ignored, etc.). I hope that somehow these cases can be identified and the players as well as the national teams involved will be punished. I think that some footballers actually find the new country to their liking (often due to legitimate marriage or ancestry) and become true immigrants to the new country, these players shouldn't be excluded.

[Soccerfever]

Hey!

Look how this past Wednesday.The match between Croatia and Israel that ended 3-4 for Croatia.3 out of the 4 Croatian goals were scored by Eduardo Da Silva... while 2 out of the 3 goals for Israel were scored by Roberto Caulorti(or something like that), an Argentinian who married an Israeli to make him eligible to play for that country.....something must be done against this matter.....

[Cris 09]

In Ecuador, 2 Argie players natualized to play for the team-great strikers; Ariel graziani and Juarez. They played a few games for the national team under Ecuador's last coach and are always on the top goalscorers lists dor their clubs, but Carlos Suarez, Ecuador's new coach oppted not to take them to germany because they were not 100% Ecuadorian, and Ecuador faired well in 2006. Kudos to Suarez for not selling out.

[dor02]

Where has Camo stated that he still feels 100 % Argentine?

[amanzo81]

...
don't know what is!
10) There is this Argentinian player who played for Mexico at the 2002 World Cup,forgot his name....


Caballero. You also forgot Guillermo Franco, an argentine who played for mexico in 06 months after his naturalization.

[Hrvat]

Hey, I would feel better if Eduardo wasn't playing for us. But, after 7 years that he's lived here you have to give him citizenship, because of course everything else would be racism. After that, if you don't put him on the team, and he's obviously one of the best players, you have racism again. We didn't make the rules, but we'll definetly play along.

But, calling e.g. Eduardo a mercenary is really ugly. He came to Croatia at the age of 16 when nobody knew of him, neither here, neither in Brazil. He came here to play football, but it's not like he had a NT spot promised. He made his debut for the NT in 2004, 5 years after his arrival and 3 years after being eligible for citizenship. So, he's no mercenary.

There's too much politics in this issue, and think it will (unfortunatly) be very difficult to change sth.

[Soccerfever]

Where has Camo stated that he still feels 100 % Argentine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauro_Camoranesi

...

To Hrvat: You've got some good points,but still I believe that Da Silva came to Croatia for footballing reasons in the first place...

I agree that you can't forbid each and every foreigners to play for their adopted country but the thing is that some of them do it because they consider their adopted ountry as their new home,showing loyalty,showing interest in the country's culture,history,language and others will simply do it because they know too well that they will never get a call up for the country they really should play for...

The FIFA rules should be more severe or changed before international football becomes bull sh*t because of this issue.

[Caesar]

Joe Simunic and Anthony Seric of Croatia. Were born and grew up in Australia, recieved taxpayer-funded scholarships to the elite Australian Institute of Sport to develop their football, played for Australian youth teams, and then defected to Croatia back when they were one of the best teams in the world in the late 90s.

Joey Dideluca also was born and grew up in Australia before playing for Croatia. But I don't call him a mercenary because he said publically he wanted to play for Australia several times, but kept being overlooked. Also, he never got the taxpayer-funded training of the others.

[Gold is the Colour]

As Hrvat alluded to there could be legal problems with stopping people playing for a certain country after they gain citizenship.

My solution would be to make them take an international ban for 4 years when they change alleigences, or first recieve citizenship, and include youth call ups for this.

Thus they will be forced to miss a world cup if they wish to change their alleigences. It will stop all the true mercenaries, that are selected for a country just before a world cup, or through the qualifiers to get them through.

However those that are doing it purely for the love of their new country, or because they have been there long enough (ie since they were young) would be OK under this or consider it worthwhile anyway.

[SwissGCZ]

The problem, as you pointed in the Ailton/Qatar case, is that some footballers are getting a preferential treatment when it comes to citizenship (e.g. being paid, fast tracked, rules are ignored, etc.). I hope that somehow these cases can be identified and the players as well as the national teams involved will be punished.
FIFA already acted on this in direct response to the Ailton/Qatar case. Now a (naturalized) citizen needs to prove two years of residence in his newly adopted country in order to be eligible. In other words, Ailton would have had to live two years in Qatar before suiting up for the national team.

[dor02]

Joe Simunic and Anthony Seric of Croatia. Were born and grew up in Australia, recieved taxpayer-funded scholarships to the elite Australian Institute of Sport to develop their football, played for Australian youth teams, and then defected to Croatia back when they were one of the best teams in the world in the late 90s.

Joey Dideluca also was born and grew up in Australia before playing for Croatia. But I don't call him a mercenary because he said publically he wanted to play for Australia several times, but kept being overlooked. Also, he never got the taxpayer-funded training of the others.It was a shame that Farina didn't cap Didulica. He was a good goalie. I remember when he was at Ajax, he was a back-up keeper but he was better than the first-choice goalie.

Simunic is a bastard though. After that match at the WC, he should be hung for how he played against the country of his birth.

[Hrvat]

Šerić and Šimunić don't belong here. They may be traitors, but since their only motive was to play for the country of their ancestors (and it was their only motive, no matter what someone might think), they are hardly mecenaries.

[Caesar]

Šerić and Šimunić don't belong here. They may be traitors, but since their only motive was to play for the country of their ancestors (and it was their only motive, no matter what someone might think), they are hardly mecenaries.
I would think they very definitely fit the criteria here. They used Australia for the superior development and training opportunities it provided, many at taxpayer expense, and then after all that investment in them jumped ship to play for what was at the time a vastly superior team.

They were willing to use Australia as long as it was beneficial to them personally. I would think that sort of financial opportunism fits the very definition of a mercenary.

[schmuckatelli]

-David Regis(Frenchman-United States) WC'98 and WC'02(remained on the bench).Funny thing is that during the 1998 World Cup in France,he was in the starting eleven and couldn't even speak english nor understand it...what a disgrace!
Our English friends would argue that NO ONE in the US starting lineup speaks the language! ;)
Thomas Dooley, the WC98 US captain, did not speak English much better than Regis. He was born and raised in Germany of a US father and German mother. Predrag "Preki" Radosavljevic (Serbia) and Carlos Llamosa (Colombia) have also played for the US after coming being born and raised abroad. The US coach at that time, Steve Sampson, did not put much faith in native-born players, so he recruited heavily. Nevertheless, the US is a land of immigrants, so foreign-born players are not so unusual, nor so mercinary.

[Soccerfever]

Our English friends would argue that NO ONE in the US starting lineup speaks the language! ;)
Thomas Dooley, the WC98 US captain, did not speak English much better than Regis. He was born and raised in Germany of a US father and German mother. Predrag "Preki" Radosavljevic (Serbia) and Carlos Llamosa (Colombia) have also played for the US after coming being born and raised abroad. The US coach at that time, Steve Sampson, did not put much faith in native-born players, so he recruited heavily. Nevertheless, the US is a land of immigrants, so foreign-born players are not so unusual, nor so mercinary.

Yeah but let's not forget as you mentionned that Thomas Dooley's father was American so that is enough and fair to make him eligible to play for the US while Llamosa and Preki altough not born in the US spent atleast a few years in that country.On the other hand Regis saw that he wasn't going to be picked by France so he got naturalized weeks before the World Cup was schedueled there.I'm sorry but David Regis is(was) a mercenary!No doubt about it!

[Sagy]

FIFA already acted on this in direct response to the Ailton/Qatar case. Now a (naturalized) citizen needs to prove two years of residence in his newly adopted country in order to be eligible. In other words, Ailton would have had to live two years in Qatar before suiting up for the national team.
You are correct, my problem is that neither Qatar nor Ailton were punished in a sense every country/player can take a chance on a "fake" naturalizations since they have nothing to lose.

[RichardHKirkando]

Jimmy Bullard nearly played for Germany this year, he qualified because his grandmother was German or something. It seems silly, but it's never really been a huge deal IMO. Though, I would have liked to have seen Lukas Podolski and Tomasz Radzinski playing for Poland.

[Antonio81]

Years ago it used to be much worse. South American great Alfredo Di Stefano was born and reared in Argentina and represented them at international level, before going to LA Primera Liga, changing citizenship and playing for Spain too(strange laws, or a lack of them back then). Ironically he never made it to any World Cups.

And the US 1930 World Cup team had 9 starters on it.

[Sagy]

Years ago it used to be much worse. South American great Alfredo Di Stefano was born and reared in Argentina and represented them at international level, before going to LA Primera Liga, changing citizenship and playing for Spain too(strange laws, or a lack of them back then). Ironically he never made it to any World Cups.

And the US 1930 World Cup team had 9 starters on it.
Much worse than Di Stefano - Luis Monti, lost with Argentina in the 1930 final and won with Italy in 1934.