Edgar seeks Angola switch By Mark Glesson Angola is seeking clearance from Fifa for former Portugal striker Edgar to chart a new international career with the Southern African country. Fifa officials say the case of the 27-year-old, who plays for Spanish club Real Malaga, is one of the six applications they are considering. No date was fixed for the resolution of Edgar's case and that of Ugandan-born Joel Kitamirike and Burton O'Brien, who played for Scotland's under-21 side but is of South African origin. Since last year, players with dual nationality who have not played at full international level for one country are entitled to switch their allegiance to another. But Edgar's case represents an interesting dilemma for Fifa to ponder over. After playing for Portugal's under-21 side in a 1997 European Championship qualifier, he went on to win a full cap in a non-competitive match. He made a 15-minute appearance for Portugal in a game against Mozambique in 1998. However, it is unclear whether this solitary appearance in a friendly game disqualifies him from playing for Angola under Fifa rules. Angola successfully applied to have Marco Paulo, who features for Portuguese clubside Estoril, chart a new career with the Palacas Negras. Fifa allowed five former Portuguese youth internationals - Ernesto, Lisa, Puma, Sandra and Vega, to play for Cape Verde in June. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/4062675.stm I don't see why not. He'll never play for Portugal again.
If he has a cap in a senior international for Portugal, he shouldn't be able to play for any other country.
My understanding is that he played in a FIFA-sanctioned competition at youth level, and a friendly with the full national team. Players from both of these situations have played for a second country, but AFAIK, this is the first case involving an individual who falls under both categories.
Not that I feel that Edgar has a chance with the Portuguese NT, but he did play for them (albeit for a brief period of time) and I am sure that he had no objections to playing with them and the repercussions that have come since he was a so-called starlet with Benfica. Things haven't gone his way since, he knows that he has absolutley zero chance at ever representing Portugal again and now he thinks that it would be great to play for Angola? Sorry, but my opinion is that once you commit to a country by representing them, even for 15 minutes of fame, you have therefore thrown out any chance of representing another country again. Sorry, Edgar - you got no-one to blame but yourself for this...
but the rules change, know they going to investigate his case, and he my be one of the players consider, I'm pretty sure that portuguese federation will not do anything to stop it, they my even encourage it
I say let him play. 15 minutes in a friendly isn't enough to make one Portuguese and it would help out Angola. No sense denying someone a chance to play when they never really played for the other team.
I have to disagree. Even though, like you guys have said, Edgar won't play for Portugal again, this would set a dangerous precedent, even if it's just one cap. If you allow this, it opens up other cases. What if, say, Owen Hargreaves falls out of favor with England and decides, "You know what? Maybe I'll play for Canada after all!" Allowing Edgar to play for Angola could open the door for those kind of situations.
its just a matter of time, Fifa is going to have a dept just to evaluate cases like this, this are just a few of the names, these old men just don't mind new changes, I guess I'm too liberal
As much as it makes sense for the guy to make the switch, because afterall, he only played 15 minutes for Portugal in a friendly, I also think it will likely set a very negative trend, where other players will do the same thing. Precedent is everything in a game where there are already so many complications.
He shouldn´t be allowed to play for another national team, he was one of the stars of our youth teams he played at senior level so he shouldn´t play for other nation and i have to disagree about the possibility of him playing again for our national team, if he was playing in Portugal i am sure he would have another opportunities to play in our national team.
I think the rule should apply to those who play in any competitive match. One friendly and that's it? If thats how the rule goes than so-be-it but since others apparently got out after youth competitions? I would say that I rate that much higher than a friendly which just boosts the bogus world rankings. I say let him play for Angola, the second he steps on the field for qualifying for the WC thats it. Same for Euro Qual and any 'AA' tournament and quaulies but a friendly? please. Maybe after 3 friendlies youre commited but 1 or 2 thats nothing, does not prove where your heart is, where you belong or what obligations you owe. Unless it's for real comp, its not real at all. But thats my opinion and I understand why most of you would disagree. I just hate the idea of being locked out of situations for one decision. Kinda like getting married to a gold digger who bides her time that takes half of what you earned while she sat at home and spent your money at the mall. you didn't know it wouldn't last and now youre screwed, I never liked that and will never accept it the way many of you seem to do.
If this is allowed then the next step will be for Lower ramked countries to start paying players big money to switch nationalities so that they can getr higher standings in the rankings. Also some countries would naturally try to buy a cup
If they do it for Edgar, they'll start getting requests from every country about so and so to join their NT. It's going to be a mess. He wanted to play for Portugal, but now that he realises he's not good enough, he's considereding switching to another country. Too bad. He should've thought about it in the first place. Whatever the decision, I couldn't care less, we won't miss him.
Whats to stop lower ranked countries to go to Brazil or Portugal and offer young stars to play for them for alot of money now?
It happed in Tunisia, I believe. They got some Brazilians who had played there to join their team, and they won the African Nations Cup. Then, Qatar tried to pay players to play for them. But FIFA stepped in, and made rules regarding lineage, and time spent in a country.