A '99 with AIK's U17s: http://www.aikfotboll.se/TextPage.aspx?textPageID=6881 Listed as a New Yorker on a new U18 roster: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/roster-revealed-for-the-us-u18-mnt-camp_aid38065 His agent/rep: http://hkfootballmanagement.com/klienter/Nebiyou Perry.html AIK is a first-division Stockholm club. Photo training with first team on public Instagram: https://instagram.com/p/49p2P4NQA-/?taken-by=1nebiyou
He has been at a couple of Bosön-camps (1 2) for Sweden at U15 & U16 level. The U15's are the youngest swedish national youth team level and these are bigger camps where they call in something like 50 guys to have a look through the current top players from the different districts around the country and see who the best guys are at the moment. These camps don't contain any matches against other countries however, so he hasn't played any games for Sweden.
Did okay against Canada: The U.S. beat Canada 3-1 on Friday in the first friendly of the October camp. Nebiyou Perry scored twice on Friday while Nick Taitague had the other. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/canada-tops-us-in-u18-friendly-in-socal_aid38168
Called back in for a trip to Argentina: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/roster-revealed-for-us-u18-mnt-trip_aid38931
Came on as a sub for the first team today after 32 mins in AIKs last friendly before the league starts vs FC Inter Turku from Finland. Not sure if it was his debut for the first team, but would assume so since many AIK fans didn't even seem to know who he was.
AIK U21 striker Nebiyou Perry, who recently played with the US U18s in Argentina in March, will play for Sweden in this summer's U17 Euros— Nats Abroad (@Nats_Abroad) May 1, 2016
The two biggest U17 stars who are already playing first team football, Sead Hakšabanović and Alexander Isak, were a bit controversially not released by their clubs. So Perry was one of the players who were brought in as replacements compared to the squad that qualified for the tournament.
He started, played most of the game, and assisted on the second goal as Sweden beat England 2-1 in the first round of the group stage. In an interview today some further background are given on Perry. He was born in New York by a Swedish mother of Ethiopian descent and an American father. He lived in the US until he turned 8 years old. Perry also points out that he has strong ties to America and that he is a bit of a mix of everything. The big difference between the two national teams is that the USA play more possession based football while Sweden has more standout players, but he also points out that both are very professional setups and that playing for the Americans was good for his development. He actually contacted the American FA himself by mailing them videoclips of his play after being brought in to several Swedish camps but never getting to play. He most recently had contact with the Americans last thursday and he states that they might not be happy with him playing the U17 Euros. However he still haven't decided who he wants to play for in the future and he doesn't want to close any doors.
Since he's a '99, he isn't eligible (unless he plays up) for tournament-playing U.S. teams until the 2019 U20 cycle. So, if I understand things correctly, playing in a UEFA tournament for Sweden means he'd have to file a one-time switch to rejoin us. He played for Sweden in a loss to Denmark today. Their last group match is later this week against France. http://www.uefa.com/under17/season=2016/matches/live/index.html?day=40&session=2&match=2019779 http://www.uefa.com/under17/season=2016/teams/player=250097656/index.html
Also worth noting that according to him in that interview it sounds like the US camp is not very happy about this.
Understandable. Nothing worse than having a player you want in your system provisionally cap-tied to another country, especially at 17. But sometimes the calendar works in your favor and sometimes it works against you.
Exactly. I get that it might be disappointing to "lose" the guy, but they could offer a UEFA tournament. All we could really offer was camps until late 2017/early 2018. I wonder if he was known to the program during our last U17 cycle. He would've been on the young side for that squad, and we had some established attackers, but still curious whether he had already reached out.
And I think players, especially that young, don't realize the consequences of being provisionally cap-tied. Unless you have a falling out with a coach/federation or find yourself definitely left out by one fed, but in demand by another, you are taking a chance to file the switch. In the USMNT history, most of the switches have been at the full-NT level when it was obvious a player wasn't in the mix anymore. Switching at the youth level just isn't likely and might be a bad idea all around (ask Aaron Maund). Not that he shouldn't have gone ahead and taken the call-up.
UEFA seems to be posting some videos to YouTube, but I don't see any with Sweden up yet: https://www.youtube.com/user/UEFA/videos
The first game wasn't even produced for TV by UEFA so I don't think there will be any video for that one. I did watch the second one but since it was such a defensive affair there won't be much worth watching. You could definitely tell that we were missing our two star attacking players because before the last five minutes or so we had created maybe one or two chances. Perry didn't really do any better or worse then anyone else, although the british commentators did have a small go at him when he was subbed of (anti american bias? ) because they thought he was a bit of a ball hog.
Whatever it might mean, Perry is back on a YNT roster for a European trip: FORWARDS (6): Shaft Brewer (Sacramento Republic; Sacramento, Calif.), Griffin Dorsey (Colorado Rush; Evergreen, Colo.), Ernesto Espinoza (Club Tijuana; San Diego, Calif.), Nebiyou Perry (AIK Fotboll; New York, N.Y.), Justin Rennicks (New England Revolution; Hamilton, Mass.), Aristotle Zarris (Unattached; Sarasota, Fla.) http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...en-czech-republic-for-vaclav-jezek-tournament Doubt he would need to file a switch to play in a competition like this.
Once you are provisionally cap-tied, you shouldn't play with another squad in anything more than a scrimmage without a one-time switch. The penalty for breaking the rule would be small, but not something you want to do on the regular. Not that US Soccer hasn't made some mistakes with call-ups of cap-tied players before.
Youth football Although, not explicitly stated in the FIFA statutes, there are seemingly no restrictions on players who wish to switch national associations at youth level providing they play in non-official matches. Alex Zahavi has represented the Portugal under-17 national team in the 2007 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying round (an official). He later represented Portugal U18 and U19 teams in friendly competitions. In October 2010, he represented US U-20 and scored in a friendly game versus Colombia.
Of course, someone has to protest for there to be any action taken. I get the feeling that most don't bother on the friendly side, especially if there isn't much to gain.
Here's the provision in the statutes that refers to playing for another national team (in any category): 5-2 With the exception of the conditions specified in article 8 below, any Player who has already participated in a match (either in full or in part) in an Official Competition of any category or any type of football for one Association may not play an international match for a representative team of another Association. Article 8 talks about the rules for switching associations. http://www.fifa.com/mm/Document/AFFederation/Generic/02/58/14/48/2015FIFAStatutesEN_Neutral.pdf
But I think that applies to senior level not youth level. My understanding is, if Nebiyou plays an official match for the US he needs to file for a switch.
I'm no expert, but 8-1 seems to sort of unwind 5-2 above in the case of players with claim to multiple nationalities.
But you'll notice it doesn't say that. It says of any category or any type of football (referring to futsal, etc.). The "any category" likely refers to youth competitions. If it was only for senior level competitions, it would refer to 'Official Competition at “A” international level' as it does in Article 8-1.
I don't see it that way, but anything is possible considering there are court cases and administrative rulings that can affect the interpretation of these rules.