Brief audio interview with Fagundez discussing his debut for Uruguay (in Spanish): Fagúndez: "El debut fue muy especial"
Welcome to 2015, Diego: Diego Fagundez says he wants to play for the USMNT, says his citizenship is mere months away, and that he would like to play for a country that would be interested in him (says Uruguay no longer in contact with him).— Alicia Rodriguez (@soccermusings) January 20, 2018
I knew that was the story he was ineligible, but I don't understand why. He wasn't cap-tied to the Uruguayan senior team and never appeared for U.S. youth teams to have to sign a one-time-switch. Because he wasn't a U.S. citizen by the time he appeared in the u-20 WC for Uruguay? If so, that's another arbitrary FIFA rule.
If a player wishes to file a one-time-switch to another country, he MUST have been eligible for that other country at the time of the provisionally cap-tying youth competitive cap. The rule is designed to keep a country like Qatar from finding Brazilian youth players who never made the senior team level and recruiting them to their national team. The rule: 8 Change of association 1. If a player has more than one nationality, or if a player acquires a new nationality, or if a player is eligible to play for several representative teams due to nationality, he may, only once, request to change the association for which he is eligible to play international matches to the association of another country of which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions: a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition at “A” international level for his current association, and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition for his current association, he already had the nationality of the representative team for which he wishes to play. b) He is not permitted to play for his new association in any competition in which he has already played for his previous association.
But the reality is it c**k blocks people with legit dual national background like Fagundez. He's essentially not eligible because his mom didn't put in the paperwork when he was a kid. Really what they should do to deter the behavior like you discussed is to make a much stricter naturalization requirement in adulthood, or not allow it at all because it's skirting the system. That country had nothing to do with your development. But if you spent x amount of years before 18 in a country, let's say 5, you're eligible whenever you ultimately get citizenship, or even without.
Long time residents who aren't citizens are almost never a case of "not submitting the paperwork." I only have circumstantial evidence, but everything indicates that Diego and his family overstayed their visa and were in the US illegally. He would have been DACA eligible in all likelihood if he hadn't been granted a P-1 visa. True, it's punishing him and others like him, but FIFA decided to draw the line somewhere. US immigration law isn't very welcoming, which compounds the problem, especially with no shortcut for folks that we want to have citizenship quickly. Limiting it to only the country you developed in limits the options of players who never get the chance in their home countries. More opportunities for players to join a national team is usually better.
The purpose of the rule is to prevent Qatar from capping all of Brazil's and Argentina's former youth standouts. Any rule, no matter how carefully and sensibly written, are going to catch some people in a vise. Diego should either have said "not yet" to Uruguay, or he should have gotten his citizenship first. Let me point out that EVEN NOW he doesn't have his citizenship. My memory is the same.
My memory is the same too. Its hard to tell a kid like Diego (or Andy Najar or Jack Harrison or whomever) to wait when the citizenship timelines are so long. You gotta strike while the iron is hot. In this business you can have an injury that ends your career next week. And you can wait all of that time...................and then the USMNT may not be interested after all. We do have kids that we've cap-tied who in hindsight might have been better off not switching to the US program. The Teal Bunbury types.....................
Can't you get waivers and exceptions to these sort of things? Didn't Zelalem need some sort of waiver?
Different rule. Zelalem's was a waiver of the rule that a player must wait until he has been resident in his new country for 5 consecutive years after turning 18 when gaining a new citizenship to be eligible to play for the new country. The availability of a waiver not listed in the statutes, but it seems to be fairly common (because the rule penalizes players who are taken by their parents to a new country). I've never heard of a waiver for something like this, though you never know. He can always ask.
Interesting. That suggests seeking a waiver in this circumstance would not be inappropriate from a procedural POV. It can't hurt to ask.
Seems unlikely. I mean, there's no actual reason for FIFA to rule in Diego's favor here. This isn't a case like..................Osvaldo Alonso. He was cap-tied to Cuba, but could never actually play for Cuba again after defecting to the US. So you could kinda see an argument there. Diego Fagundez is cap-tied to Uruguay. He's just not good enough to get a call up. Sorry...................them's the breaks. Who didn't see this coming? If Diego didn't want to be cap-tied to Uruguay, then he shouldn't have gone to the U20 South American Championships with them.
To be honest, I don’t think he’s good enough for the US either, although he does a position of need for us.
The thing that stands out to me about this is how bad Diego's representation is. Like, he genuinely doesn't seem to realize that his Uruguay appearance cap-tied him, which presumably means that no one mentioned it back then. Total negligence. A collection of BigSoccer posters could be doing a better job.
Fagundez has the same problem that a lot of those NE players do, he's been moved around to play positions that don't suit his game. I thought when playing positions that suit his game (#10 or LW), he did pretty well last season.
I hoep Friedel doesn't play guys all over the field like Heaps and that the Revs get a real soccer stadium but I digress.