Does that mean they wouldn't be allowed to board a flight after a game in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver?
Correct. There are currently Green Card holders and other US visa holders stuck at US airports who were overseas at the time the order was issued. MLS doesn't have any players from the countries right now (at least based on the list I've seen), but I have looked at NASL or USL which would have similar problems.
Jack Harrison's clock has now started: .@Harrison_Jack11, @EiJo92 and @MatarritaRonald have all received U.S Green Cards 🇺🇸https://t.co/Y4ddfWdKvV— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 2, 2017
That's the drill. Sometime around March 2022 he could get his citizenship. Only shortcut is to marry a US citizen *before* he hits 2 years on the GC and then it's 3 years after the marriage. All assumes he stays in the US for the duration.
That's fine. He'll be well into a place where we know if he can contribute, with years left to do so, should it come to fruition. Good luck to the kid otherwise, he's a fantastic winger.
Dom Dwyer has graduated to "eligible for selection": IT'S OFFICIAL! #SportingKC's @Ddwyer14 is now a 🇺🇸 citizen.https://t.co/3bxslFcesx— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) March 16, 2017
The official queue has changed quite a bit just since November: It's been almost a year, so it's time for an updated master list of Green Card holders: Player| Date Green Card |Date Earliest Citizenship | Age at Citizenship | In US Since Alex (Brazil) | June 2014 | June 2019 | (30) | 2012 Dominic Oduro (Ghana) | NLT 2011 | NLT 2016 | (31) | 2004**** Harrison Heath (England) | ~2011 | ~2016| (20) | ~2008 + Jack Harrison (England) | NLT March 2017 | ~2022 | (25) | 2013 Jesus Ferreira (Colombia) | 2012 | 2017 | (16) | 2009 + Juninho (Brazil) | July 2013| July 2018 | (29) | 2010 Kwadwo Poku (Ghana) | ~2014 | ~2017 | (27) | 2010 Luke Boden (England) | ~ Jan. 2014 | Jan. 2017 | (29) | 2011 Luke Mulholland (England) | Dec. 2014 | Dec. 2019 | (31) | 2011 Matt Watson (England) | Mar. 2012 | Mar. 2017 | (32) | 2006*** Patrick Nyarko (Ghana) | 2011 | 2016 | (30) | 2005 Sebastien Le Toux (France) | Aug. 2010 | Aug. 2015 | (31) | 2007** Stefan Frei (Switzerland) | NLT 2008 | "soon" | (30) | "late '90s" * + Footnotes: NLT = No Later Than Bold = In the window for US citizenship * Frei got his Green Card during his college days, but moved to Toronto before the FIFA "5 years after 18" window. He had a break in his physical presence while in Canada, so is close to being eligible for citizenship, but it's not clear how close. ** Le Toux was in Vancouver for 6 months in 2012, so that probably broke his 5 year run for FIFA purposes. If so, he wouldn't have FIFA eligibility until July 2017. *** Watson was in the US lower divisions for about five years before simultaneously getting his Green Card and transferring to Vancouver. **** Oduro has been playing in Canada since 2014. He would have needed to make sure he maintained US residency to be able to get citizenship. The longer he is in Canada, the more difficult that is. + These players may suffer from the "Gedion Zelalem Conundrum" in that they weren't born in the US and may be subject to the "5 years residency after turning 18" rule. We'll see if FIFA grants any waivers on this rule.
Disagree. He wasn't transferred until January 31 of 2012. I'm pretty sure he was in the US trialing before January of 2007.
I don't understand your first point. He was traded by Philadelphia to Vancouver for January 31 of 2012 and then traded to New York Red Bulls on July 13th, 2012. That's about 6 months and it all occurred in 2012. When this list was put together, we had no idea that FIFA did offer waivers for players who didn't quite meet the 5 consecutive years after 18 requirement. As of July of this year, it will be immaterial anyway as he would have 5 years back in the US. We now understand that a 6 month gap would probably get a waiver from FIFA, if needed. As to your second point, it's an estimate. "Trialing" doesn't usually count for FIFA purposes as being resident in a country, so there's no need to include it, especially because, he could probably get a FIFA waiver. FIFA generally counts when a team holds your ITC. Sure, he might have gotten his "5 years before 18" before he moved to Canada. This whole chart is an estimate of dates based on what we know. There are an awful lot of little things we can't be 100% sure of, so we work with what we got. I find it's better to be a bit pessimistic on dates so we aren't disappointed. That's a footnote I can probably delete soon anyway.
Now that I've taken a 2nd look at it, I think I get the gist of your point. According to Transfermarkt, he transferred to Seattle in the USL on February 1st, 2007, so getting traded on January 31st, 2012, might be significant as it would put him pretty much on the 5 years, + or minus a few days for ITC transfer. His time trialing wouldn't really count in this calculation. Might or might not require a waiver, but, of course, he'd need to get his US citizenship AND play well enough to justify a call-in.
Yes, it was Preki. No foreign player who came to the US to play professionally since the inception of MLS in 1996 has gone on to play for the US national team. Think about that stat. There have been a lot of uncap-tied foreign players who have done great in MLS - Luciano Emilio, Cristian Gomez, Wilman Conde, Javier Morales, Jamison Olave, Sebastian Le Toux, Aurelien Collin, Jimmy Nielsen, Diego Valeri, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Mauro Diaz are all Best XI selections - but none have come close to playing for the US. Mostly it's because the citizenship process here now takes so long that most of these guys are in their 30s before they are or would be able to become US citizens. For some, that lessens the incentive to stay and so they don't put the time in here and pursue other pro opportunities. For those that stay, the citizenship usually comes after their prime or after they are done playing. With MLS now signing more younger internationals while still searching for deals, relatively speaking, that are cheap, it increases the odds of an uncapped player getting citizenship at -a young enough age to still play for the national team - Hector Villalba, for instance - but that assumes they stay in MLS the whole time and aren't tempted by the chance to make more elsewhere. Our citizenship process is just a slog and it's a miracle someone like Dwyer has done it quickly enough to get his citizenship while he is still in his mid 20's.
And Dwyer's process was helped by him getting his Green Card so quickly. As I understand it, he got it from his father's Green Card status while he was still in school. I'm not sure what kind of work his father does or his reason for being in the US, but it was the deciding factor. Otherwise, we'd be waiting after his marriage to Sydney.
I am debating in the Honduras thread whether Dom could be called up for Friday, or is FIFA approval needed even though he is not switching....Thoughts?
Even though some journalists say there is a requirement for FIFA to review new citizenship, I have found nothing in the FIFA statutes that refers to this (not that there aren't FIFA rules that are buried somewhere else in the documentation). The big issue is the FIFA WCQ competition rules require a passport. Can Dom get his passport that fast? Here are the rules on eligibility: 1. Each association entering the preliminary competition shall provide the FIFA general secretariat with a provisional list of at least 50 prospective players for the preliminary competition no later than 30 days before its first qualifying match. This list shall show each player’s last name, first name, current club, date of birth and passport number as well as the coach’s last name, first name, date of birth and nationality. 2. This list is not binding. Further players may be added, showing the same information, at any time but no later than the day before the qualifying match in question. 3. The only document considered to be valid proof of a player’s identity and nationality shall be a passport that explicitly states the player’s day, month and year of birth. Identity cards or other supporting official documents shall not be accepted as a valid means of identification. The participating member associations shall present each player’s valid national passport for the country of the participating member association to the FIFA Match Commissioner on the day before the match. A player without a valid passport shall not be entitled to play.
LOL, I love being optimistic. Anyhoo, he trialed for Dallas for a month then went to Seattle (USL back then) and had a contract in hand three weeks later according to an interview. That's all I can find. It's plausible that he had a contract by January 31st. Still, as you said all this is easily handled by a FIFA waiver and it's at most a little footnote.
I think of Llamosa who was a MONSTER for DCU and ended up playing for USA a little past his prime. Does he count?
Llamosa didn't come here to play professionally though. He emigrated to join his family, who was already living here, and worked as a janitor while playing soccer part time. His first pro season didn't come until a few years after his arrival.
True....but I thought he played pro in Colombia too, like in the second division though? I know he had a career in the semi-pro leagues in USA prior to MLS also.
By my count, since the start of MLS, only 20 naturalized players have played for the US. To be clear, if you were born here and moved away as a young child – Julian Green, Aaron Johannsson – or were born abroad but had an American parent – Thomas Dooley, Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson, David Wagner, etc… - then you are not a naturalized citizen as you were eligible for U.S. citizenship at birth. So those guys aren’t being counted among the 20. Five of the players – Jean Harbor (college), Carlos Llamosa (emigrated for non-soccer reasons), Preki Radisavljevic (came to play indoor soccer), David Regis (Never lived in US; citizenship via marriage), Roy Wegerle (College) – came to the U.S. as adults. The rest all came to the U.S. as minors. Three of the players - Fraser, Harbor, Wegerle - were already capped before the start of MLS and Harbor’s only cap after the inception of MLS came as a replacement player in the infamous Peru friendly during a labor stoppage in late 96. Only three - Agudelo, Feilhaber and Nagbe - are still active with the U.S. with only Nagbe in camp this week. Here's the list. Freddy Adu, M, Ghana, 17 caps, 2 goals - last capped by Bob Bradley Gale Agbossoumonde, D, Togo, 1/0 - BB Juan Agudelo, F, Colombia, 23/3 Mark Chung, M, Canada, 24/2 - BA1 Jeff Cunningham, F, Jamaica, 14/1 - BB *Benny Feilhaber, M, Brazil, 41/2 Robin Fraser, D, Jamaica, 26/0 - BA1 *Stuart Holden, Scotland, 25/3 - JK Jean Harbor, Nigeria, 15/0 - SS Ugo Ihemulu, D, Nigeria, 2/0 - BB Diego Gutierrez, M, Colombia, 1/0 - BA1 *Carlos Llamosa, D, Colombia, 29/0 - BA1 *Pablo Mastroeni, M/D, Argentina, 65/0 - BB Darlington Nagbe, M, Liberia, 12/1 *Preki Radosavlkevic, M, Serbia (nee Yugoslavia), 28/4 - BA1 *David Regis, D, France, 27/0 - BA1 &Tony Tchani, M, Cameroon, 1/0 - JK John Thorrington, M, South Africa, 4/0 - BB Martin Vasquez, M/D, Mexico, 7/0 - SS *Roy Wegerle, F, South Africa, 41/7 - SS *Played in a WC &Opted to play for another country after getting capped by US BA1 - Bruce Arena's first tenure as US coach BB - Bob Bradley JK - Jurgen Klinsmann SS - Steve Sampson As always, apologies in advance for any omissions or mistakes and all corrections welcome.
That's right, Llamosa had played as a pro in Colombia before emigrating. But the point being made by Sandon was regarding foreign players who came to the US to play professionally, and Llamosa doesn't fall into that group: In 1991, a 22-year-old Llamosa came to the United States from Barranquilla, Colombia not to pursue a professional soccer career, but to get an education. http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/cosmos2.php?article_id=32946
Fabulous work Sandy. Fabulous. I think it's interesting that we probably have more nationalized players available than ever before but a cap is now much harder to gain. Tchani, Akindele both recently tried but decided on their countries of origin. Dwyer, Frei, Manneh are now available for callup. While Zelalem, Acosta, Jones, Ferreira and Ebobisse are available for the youth teams.