English players Dual Nationality thread

Will be interesting to see if he’s named in the Squad today as according to this interview with the BBC yesterday he’s still ‘undecided’

Tammy Abraham: Chelsea striker 'undecided' on England future

• 02 October 2019
  
• England

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Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionTammy Abraham has played 74 minutes in friendly matches for England's senior team
Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham says he "has not decided" on his international future, after scoring in Wednesday's Champions League victory over Lille.

The 22-year-old is yet to play in a competitive fixture for England but appeared in friendly draws with Germany and Brazil in 2017.

He is eligible to play for Nigeria despite featuring at three youth team levels for England.

"I haven't made a decision yet. I am focusing on the club," said Abraham.

"It is always a privilege to be wanted by both nations," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "I love both nations and for me I am clearly doing something right for Chelsea. My time will come."

Abraham was part of the England Under-21s' European Championship squad this summer.

England manager Gareth Southgate will name his senior squad on Thursday for forthcoming European Championship qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

Abraham, who has netted eight goals in 10 games in all competitions for Chelsea so far this season, is joint-second in the Premier League's top scorers' chart.

"I am from an area where I have grown up with different culture backgrounds. I am fully aware Nigeria is a massive country," Abraham added.

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Chelsea boss Frank Lampard, also speaking 5 Live, added: "Tammy is handling the situation as he does with everything in life. He takes it with enthusiasm, happiness, desire to work.

"He wants to be the best and with that comes international recognition. I say it every day, it is his decision and the next decision on that front is for Gareth. I never want to tell him what to do."

Abraham spent the 2018-19 season on loan at Aston Villa in the Championship and scored his first goal in the Champions League for Chelsea on Wednesday.

Lampard said he hoped to see "many more" goals from Abraham, who linked up with compatriot Fikayo Tomori to score against Lille - the first time since March 2012 that two Englishmen were involved in the same goal in the Champions League for Chelsea.

"Tammy's performance was more of the same of what we have been seeing," said Lampard. "He's hungry for goals, he's physical, he gives everything for the team, he has quality with the ball at his feet.

"It's his first Champions League goal and we'll see many more, I hope, and many more performances like that."

 

Or maybe it’s just a case of being diplomatic just in case the call up doesn’t happen with England so he doesn’t close the door on Nigeria completely.

 

Again though, where exactly are you getting this from? The vast majority of England players these days are dual nationality (at least), you just don't even hear about it in many cases as its never an issue.

Its not like England are regularly losing star youth players. They've lost a small amount of players who'd otherwise be on the longlist of the youth teams. Its only due to the fixation on losing dual nationality players that those handful of cases get far too much attention and weight given to them.

 

No. Wales just steal young english talent. Cap them at 17 then dont pick them for 2 more years. Cant stand wales nigeria or ireland for doing this

 

Who have Wales done that with? The Wales-born Harry Wilson?

 

Ben Woodburn and Ampadu, (English born players that have made no mark in the senior game at all)are two I can think of. They also capped Dylan Levitt of United and he's never played a senior game but he was born in Wales.

 

Except that neither of them have gone uncapped for two years or more. Woodburn has caps in 2019 and Ampadu plays pretty much all the time when he's fit.

Both had made club debuts before playing for their country and both are just as eligible to play for Wales as they are England.

 

Sure. I was just highlighting a couple of English born players that were capped before making any mark in the senior game but also offered Levitt as a counterpoint because he's an u23 player and Welsh born.

 

In regards Bukayo Saka...

Handler of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr explained that it will be hard for the 18-year-old Arsenal star to play for Nigeria unless his eligibility is sorted out. ''On Bukayo Saka of Arsenal, it is not easy to invite players who has played already for England or other countries in the U-17, U-18 and U-20 categories. “It is very tedious and requires long processes to do so. I could remember that it took us one year before Ola Aina’s issue was resolved before he was cleared by FIFA and was eligible to play for us." the German tactician added.

 

With regards to dual nationality, when have we actually lost a player that we desperately wanted? People can point to examples of English eligible players playing for other countries, but a bigger issue would be if players were actually outright rejecting our advances/approach in favour of playing for other countries. I'm just genuinely curious about this btw,not aggressively making a point, but can anyone give me any clear examples of the above happening?

 

The closest I can think of whilst trying to match your criteria even though I don’t think we were desperate and nor do I think it’s a great loss either but Scott McTomminey is the only one I can think of that rejected us in favour of Scotland. I seem to remember Southgate being quite keen on him at the time but again, not sure we were desperate though so isn’t really a good match.

 

Wilf Zaha was a miss. He’d be a great wild card from the bench in a tournament, although that was a cock up on England’s part rather than a rejection.

 

Yeah I think that was scraping the barrell really. If you read the interviews, Southgate sent him a text and McLeish actually made an effort to see him personally. Compare that to Declan rice where Southgate invited him to st George's for the day and gave him a massive speech. I wonder just how much Southgate actually wanted him or whether it was just because he was flavour of the month at that moment.

 

Not that it matters a great deal because I haven't been impressed with him at all when I've seen him but interesting to see that Harvey Neville has been called up to Ireland's U19s.

Armstrong Okoflex (Celtic), Jamie Bowden (Spurs) and Tom Cannon (Everton), who has made a lightning start this season, also included.

 

Morten Spencer at Leeds has been named in Norway's U16s squad to face England.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned but Daniel Jinadu (West Ham) and Malcolm Ebiowei (Arsenal), who have both had involvement with England, are in the Nigerian prelim squad for the U17 World Cup.

 

Hard to get official confirmation but Arsenal might have released Ebiowei.

Think there's a chance both of them guys don't make the final 21 tomorrow.

 

Ben Andreucci of Leeds in Scotland u16 squad. Been in 2004 born England camps.

 

Yeah, I've seen plenty of rumours but wasn't sure.

 

Dont know why harland is wasting his career playing for Norway. Hes too good for them. He should have waited for an england under 21 callup

 

Can't wait for ChristianSur/JRSG to see this

 

Mate, he literally has no affiliation with England other than being born in Leeds. I’m not even sure how long he lived there but don’t think it was long. It would have been like Terry Butcher choosing Singapore.

Fwiw, Norway have quite a few good youngsters coming through at the moment and I think they could be quite interesting in a few years time.

 

Because he's Norwegian.

 

If I speak. I am in trouble.

 

The Irish remain convinced Gallagher will be capped by them. Deluded £#@&+ers