[imarker]

Naturalized Brazilian Players: Euro 2008

Brazilian invaders...

What team doesn’t have a Brazilian born player in its ranks in this Euro 2008 tournament? Well, on the other hand, who wouldn’t want one. But is the ability to gain citizenship a bit too easy? A bit too: 'try to win at all costs' and defeats the purpose of pulling a team together made up of your own countrymen.
http://www.soccer-training-info.com/...yers_euros.asp

[Rainer24]

I don't think Kuranyi really belongs in the same list as some of the other players. He has been in Germany since he was 15 and also has familial ties to the country.

[Alex_K]

Kuranyi isn't a naturalized player. I think the entire outrage over naturalization is stupid, but we had this discussion a million times already. But Kuranyi's father is German (just looking at freaking Wikipedia would have helped here), whuch makes him a German citizen by birth, so everyone who includes him in such a list was either a) too lazy to do a minimum of research or b) is lying to make a point.

[Soccerfever]

Couldn't agree more with the article!Spot on!

[AFCA]

Yes, it's a sad thing to do (naturalizing a player)

[frankwhite]

Originally Posted by Alex_K

Kuranyi isn't a naturalized player. I think the entire outrage over naturalization is stupid, but we had this discussion a million times already. But Kuranyi's father is German (just looking at freaking Wikipedia would have helped here), whuch makes him a German citizen by birth, so everyone who includes him in such a list was either a) too lazy to do a minimum of research or b) is lying to make a point.

This is wrong. His father was a Hungarian, who lived in Germany before moving to Brazil. He cant even speak proper German. His started playing football in Brazil, before being transfered to Stuttgart.

[benztown]

Originally Posted by frankwhite

This is wrong. His father was a Hungarian, who lived in Germany before moving to Brazil. He cant even speak proper German. His started playing football in Brazil, before being transfered to Stuttgart.

His father was German, period. He was of Hungarian descent, but seriously, how many generations do you want to go back until the blood in someone's veins is finally pure enough? Kuranyi had the German citizenship from birth. What else do you want?

Or do you want to start a philosophical argument about what determines your nationality? Is it the blood in your veins, the passport of your parents, the place you were born, the place you grew up in, the place where you lived for the majority of your life, the feeling in your gut,...?

To be clear, I think that naturalizing a player just for the sake of the NT is wrong IMHO. But this is not a black and white issue. There are many shades of gray.

[meininki]

Originally Posted by frankwhite

This is wrong. His father was a Hungarian, who lived in Germany before moving to Brazil. He cant even speak proper German. His started playing football in Brazil, before being transfered to Stuttgart.

Kuranyi's father comes from a German-Hungarian family, but only has German nationality (that's according to Kuranyi's website). This is why Kuranyi has always had a German passport.
His mother is Panamanian and the family lived in Panama for some years, when Kuranyi was a teen.
He was not transferred to Stuttgart. He moved there (from Panama, not Brazil) when he was 15 and started playing for one of VfB's youth teams.

Kuranyi's German is fine. He has a slight accent, but that's all.

[Alex_K]

Originally Posted by frankwhite

This is wrong. His father was a Hungarian, who lived in Germany before moving to Brazil. He cant even speak proper German. His started playing football in Brazil, before being transfered to Stuttgart.

His father was the son of Hungarian immigrants, grew up in Germany and was or is (no idea if he's still alive) a German citizen (see the biography on http://www.kevin-kuranyi.de/ for example, in German and English). His father then emigrated to Brazil. His family moved back to Germany when he was 15. He speaks "proper" German with a Swabian accent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y47HSCN14Y

Edit: pah, benztown somewhat beat me to it

[imarker]

I guess it paid off for Poland as Roger Guerreiro got the goal in the first half.