Player Eligibility and Switching National Teams: Case Studies & General Discussion

Gotcha. Missed that in your initial comment. Just saw played 5 times and 3 years in the same paragraph and put them together. Thanks.

 

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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

 

Don't use Daily Mail as a source about how things are interpreted in France.

If France really wanted Aymeric Laporte to play for France, it wasn't that hard to pick him first for the French national team in a random friendly. Didier Deschamps hasn't, so it's only fair for Aymeric Laporte to accept playing for Spain if Spain called him first.

 

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/e...eral-discussion.2090069/page-80#post-41005482


Anyway...
The Daily Mail included an image of the article from L'Equipe that describes Laporte as having 'succumbed to the Iberian sirens'.
If I had a subscription to L'Equipe I would have linked it. I don't, so I went with the next best thing.

 

And so?
I don't know how that is interpreted in English but in French the sentence basically means: "Laporte didn't miss the opportunity to play for Spain considering he has never worn the French senior team jersey". (French: "Laporte a donc succombé aux sirènes ibériques alors qu'il n'a encore jamais porté le maillot de l'équipe de France A").

That basically says exactly what I've earlier told: if France really wanted Laporte, they had the opportunity to make him play in the French senior team, but Deschamps didn't despite having multiple opportunities to do so. Reading the rest of the article, it is mentioned that Deschamps actually called him thrice to train with French senior team, but never made him play.

Playing for a national team is a unique opportunity to play the most prestigious competition in football which is the World Cup. No one can blame a player for doing everything he can in order to do so. If there is anyone to be blamed for him not playing for France, that would be the French coach Didier Deschamps, certainly not the player Aymeric Laporte. Generally speaking, that is the mainstream opinion in France.

 

Well, my post was over a year ago.
I'm guessing France don't miss him too much, if at all.
He's been alright for Spain.

 

A few things to report here if anybody is interested.

Tomas Aviles has somehow played for Chile in the U20 qualifiers and then for Argentina in the U20 WC.
Tomás Avilés, de jugar para Chile en el Sudamericano ...

There is also the case of Otis Khan. His grandfather was born in Delhi before partition but became a Pakistani citizen. There is yet no decision on this case.
Grimsby’s Otis Khan ruled ineligible to play for Pakistan in World Cup qualifier

 

intereting stuff around Mile Svilar, keeper from AS Roma.

he declined a call up for the upcoming friendlies of Serbia end of March and stated he wants to represent Belgium from no one.

He was caped in one friendly, i think vs Qatar when they took part in WCQ group A for WC 2022 as a "guest team".

Now Serbian FA Director Stevan Stojanivic (keeper of Red Star 1991 Bari UCL winning team) stated, that he is not eligible to. switch as he made his debut past his 21st birthday.

He mentioned Oliver Kovacevic as an exampe that prevented Serbia from calling that keeper up fro the same reason

So, who is right?

 

I think he can still play for Serbia but he has to file a one-time switch petition and have it approved.

 

I don't think the status as a guest team matters. I believe it's a case of "Schroedinger's Cap-Tie," as the team trying to qualify is cap-tied and the guest team is not.

As long as the competitive match occurred after he turned 21, he *should* be cap-tied.

 

that "guest team" was more explanational for the status of Qatar.

Well I assume it was a friendly.
If it was, is he then eligble to switch nations to belgium or is he cap-tied with Serbia?

 

This helps (from Wikipedia):

Qatar were partnered with the five-team Group A, which enabled the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts to play centralised friendlies against these countries on their "spare" match dates. However, these friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings

If they were played as friendlies (meaning the results didn't count in the standings), then there is no issue and he can move without issue as friendlies don't matter.

Qatar wasn't really a guest team in a competition, but a "designated" open date opponent.

But.... here's the sticking point. It looks like he filed a one-time switch to Serbia as he played in UEFA U21 qualifiers for Belgium (+ U17 & U19 competitive matches).

Playing for a team *after* your one-time switch means you can't undo the switch.

 

Yes I wanted to add that now. He already did a switch from Belgium to Serbia and there seems to be that rules.

Honestly, who are his advisers? He robbed him from playing the Euros with that escapade, as i think he had good chances to be in close competition with Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and Djordje Petrovic for No. 1 in the serbian goal.

I have seen keepers scoring own goals, frequently but none was so painful like this.

 

It appears Brahim Diaz has chosen to play for Morocco instead of Spain. He did play for Spain in 2021 but that was a friendly.

 

Another player who has eligibility for Spain is Christhian Mosqera, CB of Valencia.

Spanish Media is claiming he will choose Spain and will be called up for their U-21 matches this month. He has previously played for other youth teams .

There's some suggesting though that there is still a chance he will be playing for Colombia. Or it can end up like the Diaz situation down the road. His Parents are Colombian so you never know what his family is trying to convince him to do.

Something to keep an eye on.

I think the kid would be fighting for playing time for Colombia's Senior team as early as this month if he does choose that route. For Spain he might have to wait a while and work up the ranks.
That said, not sure he filled out the proper paperwork so it might just be easier for him to play for Spain's U21 and go from there.

We will find out soon enough.

 

Good get for Morocco.

 

I don't really get him changing his mind after the original switch. He seemed pretty clear at the time that Belgium was a closed book for him and he was now fully committed to Serbia. So what changed?

 

maybe Lukaku.

but how unprofessional to proclaim the without a legal check before

who is his agent?

now he will miss the Euros because of that.

 

Cristhian Mosquera has been included on the Euro U21 Spain roster.

Still not officially over by any means but Spain has won this round so far.

 

His father always wanted him to pick Serbia.
Mile himself might have had a case of buyer's remorse as it took a long time for him to receive another call-up from Serbia.
A one-time switch can be annulled but playing one half in that friendly v. Qatar made the switch permanent/can no longer be annulled. So no way back, right? @BostonRed

He wants to start games asap but looks like that'll take a while and he might end up down the pecking order after all.

 

but he got the invite and at least had a chance for pos 2 in serbian goal.

how stupid.