English players Dual Nationality thread

Afobe played for Congo and scored on his debut the other day...
news that slipped through the net. Poor career move with all the long haul travel and low level competition .

 

Good luck to him. I could see him becoming a fringe player for England, but I'd be very surprised if he's ever good enough to be more than that. He will have to start accepting call-ups to the AFCON if he's going to have a better career with DRC though.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi_Ajayi

an example of a player NIgeria called up to boost their player pool and never used afterwards..

 

With respect, he was never going to play for any of the home nations, he's pretty lucky he got a Nigeria call-up. Think we can leave that one as being happy for a kid getting to play for his country without it mattering very much at all.

 

It's true to say there are a lot of people who are born in England who resent this country - even though they live here. And I'm not just thinking of those with ties from the middle east. Countries closer to home, like Wales, Scotland and Ireland are included.

 

I'm not particularly a Danny Mills fan but go on son

http://owngoalnigeria.com/2017/06/1...jaria-fikayo-to-shun-nigeria-at-senior-level/

 

I also think ( maybe I'm naive) but winning a World Cup for you're Country and seeing they were obviously delighted would cement their allegiance to England even more.

 

Also looking at some of their tweets, I would be very surprised if any jumped ship in the near future:



Dominic Solanke : ''CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!''

Fikayo Tomori : ''WORLD CHAMPIONS! UNBELIEVABLE FEELING. THANK YOU GOD❤️. ''

Ovie Ejaria : ''absolutely buzzing !! u20 world cup champions ❤️''

Josh Onomah : ''What a feeling . CHAMMPIONSSSSSSS!❤⚽️''

Ademola Lookman : ''Unreal!!! World Cup Champions ''

Sheyi Ojo : ''We've done it!! World Champions!! This wouldn't have been possible without God. Feeling so blessed. A dream come true #WorldCup ''

 

That's what I was thinking during the ceremony.

 

And so it starts! I would be very surprised if Tomori was going to jump ship again, even Ejaria, just can't see them opting to switch to Nigeria after what has happened over the last few weeks but then again don't know them or what they feel but would just still be surprised.

http://owngoalnigeria.com/2017/06/1...nigerian-players-in-england-wyc-winning-team/

 

At least that's something.

It reads to me like they're hopeful because rejections were less firm in the past not because they've approached those players in the last few days and got a positive response.

 

Reading FC U18 keeper Gabe Rosario made his debut with USA U18s at a tournament in Portugal. Born in North Carolina to Englishman Robert "Bobby" Rosario, who played professionally for Norwich, Wolves, Coventry, and Forest. Gabe joins Tottenham's Brandon Austin (post 777 and 778 of this thread) as the English-American goalkeepers with USA U18s.

 

For a nation that was not too long ago was rightly proud of it's record of producing decent goalkeepers the USAs current senior crop, with Howard and Guzan looking past it, is poor. Pair that up with looking towards English academies to find goalkeepers for their youth squads then I think something has gone wrong with development there and has been going wrong for a while. Rosario admittedly did develop in the US up until comparatively recently but I don't think he'd be anywhere near an England youth squad...

 

About 10 years ago, we had Keller (Gladbach), Friedel (Blackburn), Howard (Everton), and Hahnemann (Reading) all starting in the Premier League or Bundesliga, and Guzan was fast-rising in MLS and soon to move to Villa. The problem is the goalkeepers born after Guzan, from 1985 to 1994, have not really panned out as hoped. Not one signed to a first-team pro contract by a club from a top European league. Another issue is Guzan, while serviceable, has regressed. The next-best hopes appear to be Ethan Horvath, who starts for Club Brugge in Belgium and has been the #1 for USA U23s, and Jesse Gonzalez, who starts for Dallas in MLS and was the #1 for Mexico U20s but has filed a switch of nations with FIFA. (There's a lot of tug-of-war occurring between the USA and Mexico for American-born players of Mexican descent.)

I agree Rosario is almost certainly not England-caliber. As for Austin, I think he could be England-caliber, having finished the season starting for Spurs U23 as an 18-year-old, though he has an easier path with the USA compared to having to compete with Pickford, Gunn, Woodman, Henderson, Ramsdale, etc.

 

I'd throw Luke Southwood in their as well.

 

I've been thinking, given our current midfield limitations it might be worth considering approaching Aaron Hunt again. Of course he's said he'd much rather play for Germany but he hasn't got a ghost of a chance for a Germany call up any more (all his caps are friendlies) and I think he's got a couple of years left where he would be useful to us, as a stopgap anyway til our under-21 players are ready to step up.
Given that he has english parentage (I don't believe in using the granny rule) and we've lost plenty of players to other nations under the ancestry rules I don't see why he shouldn't be considered, he might not be interested but we've nothing to lose.

 

Ola Aina switching to Nigeria looks like a forgone conclusion at this point but this little line in the Nigerian press about him potentially playing in the Championship is very quotable:

http://dailypost.ng/2017/06/24/rohr-ready-break-super-eagles-rule-chelseas-ola-aina/

Sneaking in there ahead of Serie A and Ligue Un.

 

If our second division were the fourth strongest league in Europe the world domination would truly be England's!

 

Not sure I buy that to be honest, I mean which teams can from the Championship could finish in the top half in Serie A or Ligue Un? Maybe just the Nigerians trying to convince themselves so they can change this rule by the sounds of it.

 

he's of a worse standard than players we are not calling upon at the minute? Would be one of the most pointless things imaginable.

 

He's had a decent season for Hamburg and is a better player than the persistently mediocre Livermore who's built a career around doing nothing much at all at various clubs.
Plus he can take free kicks which would make him a useful asset in the current England squad.

 

Come on mate, this is a real stretch. Hunt is a modestly talented 30-year-old who's on record saying that he only ever wanted to play for Germany, and as if that wasn't enough he's also been accused of racially abusing England under-21 players, which I'm sure the papers would love.

If we want someone to take free-kicks, Ward-Prowse and Baker will both be available next time we have to select a squad. Depending on Baker's club situation, they both seem like better bets to me.

 

I like Ward-Prowse but he plays a lot more withdrawn role, I don't think it worked having Dier and Livermore on the same area of the pitch, we need a more offensive midfielder. Baker maybe in the future but you'd want to see him playing regularly in a bigger league first.

As for Hunt he was exonerated over the racial abuse thing and he's always been an influential player in the Bundesliga, albeit more so at Bremen. I know he said he'd rather play for Germany but that was at a time he was one of their top midfield options and now given that ships sailed maybe he'd reconsider. He had also said he would have liked to have been approached at least at under-21 level. He's as English as Hargreaves anyway.
I wouldn't normally consider him but the midfield cupboard is pretty empty at the moment and as a short term option he could do a job.

Talking of English qualified midfielders in the Bundesliga I noticed Danso had got a senior call up for Austria recently, wonder if he was ever scouted by the England youth set up?

 

He started 14 league games this year in a side that nearly got relegated.

 

Hamburg are a decent squad, they just had a disastrous start to the season when Hunt was out of favour. They looked a decent side this year from what I saw of them and Hunt was making a big impact. The bundesliga has more strength in depth that the premiership (look at Wolfsburg getting relegated) so finishing 14th does not make them a weak team. Certainly a lot better than Vitesse Arnhem
If there were players in his position impressing in the EPL that were being overlooked I'd certainly be shouting for them but there weren't so Southgate just ends up picking whoever is playing regularly in the top half of the table, regardless how well they play.
I'd sooner he'd expand his horizons and look at players doing well at clubs at the lower end (Cucas), the championhip (Shelvey) or abroad (Hunt) than just picking someone because they used to play for Spurs or whatever his motive is.