In this past Fox Football Fone-in show (8/21/07), at the very end a caller asked a question about the possibility of Beckam playing for the US team, to which of course Natalie (host of the Beackam show on FSC) & Steven answer a categoric no, and Steve was trying to explain the rules, when Nick cut in saying the name of a player who apparently had played for 2 senior international teams. Then he suddenly stop midway into what he was saying to change the subject (I hate when they do that). I didn't catch the name of the player (anyone did?) and would like to know if there are exceptions to the rule?
http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/double-caps.html lists all of the players to play for more than one country, although many are as a result of the break up of many Eastern European states. I'm not 100% sure on the current rules, but if you have played a full international for a country then you cannot play for anyone else.
Thanks for the link. Som interesting cases in there: Sergei Kormiltsev for Russia (1998) & Ukraine (2000-2003). Jeff Cunningham for Jamaica (1999) & USA (2001-2003) and apparently some players who changed their names to play for 2 different countries. What does the rule says and what exceptions are allowed beside political/geographical change?
Jeff Cunningham never represented Jamaica in a FIFA-sanctioned match. In short, it was a friendly match that did not count against him. I assumed the case for Sergei Kormiltsev is the same. Martin Vasquez and Chris Armasis were examples of the same situation. Around 2 or 3 years ago, FIFA allowed to swoitch national team for players who were capped in the Junior level. The player, however, must be have dual-citzienship at the time of his junior cap in order for him to switch. I heard of a few African-born French players who were capped by the French U-20 team switched to their native countries in the senior level.
Imagine if FIFA didn't pass their rule, maybe Tim Cahill would have finally joined Samoa to lighten their beatdowns (Cahill was previously tied to Samoa for playing like 2 U-20 games at the age of 14).
Alfredo Di Stefano played for Spain, Colombia and Argentina. Also many argentinians played for Argentina and Italy, but that was long time ago. I don't think that now a player can change his NT after playing in Senior NT matches
I think some of the players on the 1950 USA team that beat England in the World Cup weren't even citizens of the USA. I could be wrong though. Anyone know the answer?
Alberto Spencer played for Ecuador, Uruguay while England approched him as well...this was in the mid 60's though. From Wikipedia; On the international front, Spencer holds the unique distinction of being the only goalscorer, capped by two different countries simultaneously: Ecuador, and Uruguay. He 'switched' shirts no less than four times. Incredibly, because of his last name (British ancestry from his father's side) and brilliant football skills, he was nearly capped by the English national team before their run into their 1966 World Cup. He played for Uruguay against England (2-1) in a friendly match at the legendary Wembley and scored, making him the first Uruguayan (actually he was not, since he refused to apply for citizenship) to score in that stadium.
The legendary Ferenc Puskás has been capped for both his native Hungary and Spain. I think that for political reasons (Communist takeover in Hungary) he was unable to represent the Magyars during the last years of his pro career. Currently players are not allowed to switch senior national teams. My personal view - naturalization procedures in soccer (and in sport in general) should be banned. It's way too easy to acquire a foreign passport these days and this is making a mockery out of the whole purpose of national teams. There are many Brazilians, Kenyans etc. representing different national squads.