I think dual nationally in soccer and sports is actually good . Its help smaller countries ,poor countries and countries were a certain sport is not very popular to become more competitve. I have no problem with using countries naturalizing a brazillian player or two. Of course there should be standards and can be taken to far.
Uruguay has a lil' over 3 million people, half of which are males, and they have no problem not naturalizing a brasileno and yet still make do.
All 23 players on the US 2014 World Cup team are American citizens by birth. None of them are naturalized. However, I have no problem at all with naturalized citizens playing for the US.
In the unlikely event Qatar actually ends up hosting the World Cup in 2022, get ready for a team of 23 Brazilians.
Don't have a problem with players born or growing up in one country representing another as long as it's through their parents. But I do have an issue with players playing for a country that they moved to just to play football. Sorry i think you need some connection to that country other than getting your paycheck in that currency to play for the national team. Be born their, grow up their, or have parents/Grandparents from there. (special exceptions can be made for tiny nations just trying to field a team)
Not a fan of the naturalized route. I do not think it is right Pepe and Deco have played for Portugal or that Marcos Senna and Diego Costa played for Spain.
I don't think Aron Johansson should even be a citizen. We should end birthright citizenship. Just because his parents were her studying for a few years doesn't mean their son should be a citizen. Of course, children born to illegals shouldn't be citizens. Birth tourism is another joke.
Reminds me of the old joke: "Which is the second best national team in the world?" "The Brazil reserves."
Agree. National teams are beginning to be a joke with guys like Costa playing for Spain. National teams are getting to be meaningless with all the illegal and legal immigration. Some people can represent 4 or 5 different countries.
Dual nationals are like seasonal flowers, they bring a lot of color to the garden but they only live once. Great gardens will use them for color, but to have a great garden you have to come to grips with perennials. Dual nationals are a nice way to augment our team, but the focus needs to be on building the program.
FIFA's current rule on naturalized players is a direct result of Qatar announcing that it was going to offer a number of uncapped Brazilian stars (including, IIRC, one of the Bundesliga's top scorers) citizenship to play for its national team. At least two players already capped for Qatar actually lost eligibility as a result of FIFA's rule change. Qatar still naturalizes players, but they actually have to either have a Qatari grandparent (unlikely for a country with only 300,000 citizens) or have lived in Qatar for at least 5 years. Most of the foreign-born players who can play for Qatar now are not a whole lot better than the local players -- if they were, they wouldn't be in the Qatari league long-term.
Honestly, I think it works the other way around when it comes to countries getting the A-level talent. Yes, a smaller country might get some B or C level talent that they may have otherwise not attained; and that typically is better than nothing. Sometimes though, a team like England will drop the ball and a guy like Christian Bale plays for Wales. The smaller countries need to be more vigilant. Had Iceland been more vigilant, Aron Johansen would be on their roster now. Funny how times have changed. Most people don't believe Brazil are the best anymore. They're still in the discussion of course.
In any case, I think dual nationality is here to stay. The globe's gotten a lot smaller, and a lot of people now feel genuine loyalty to two or more countries due to ancestry, birth, or life experience. Questioning the loyalty of every dual national who plays for the US is counterproductive. Two things: 1. I never knew Christian Bales played international soccer. Talk about talented. 2. Aron Johannsson may actually be higher in the US depth chart than he would be in Iceland's. Small countries often have unbalanced player pools that are extraordinarily deep at some positions and ridiculously shallow at others. Iceland is one of those right now. In one of their World Cup qualifiers, Iceland fielded a lineup in which 5 players were strikers and 4 players were right backs for their clubs.
Gareth Bale, yea. Yes, your argument about AJ's place in Iceland has been stated. However, they dropped the ball on cap-tying him nonetheless.
If Neymar's parents had migrated to the US and they become citizen, you wouldn't be complaining if he played for us this year.
Pointing out his potential self interests really doesn't add to the debate about whether the system is fair or unfair; or right or wrong; or good or bad.
Not sure he's the best example to point to If Neymar was born here, he'd be a slot receiver for Texas Tech
Any other USMNT players with tribal links? In case you misunderstood, the exclamation points signify dismay.