Blatter on naturalized Brazilians

I read Shoot! magazine, which has direct quotes from them.

 

Scots are also eligible to play for England by virtue of being British citizens. And holding a British passport does not make you English. I have one, and I don't feel English. My mum was born in England and she doesn't feel English.

And the fact that you differentiate between citizens by birth and naturalization says a lot about where this thread has gone since the first post.

 

Well, you know where the exit is.

 

Rooney and Gerrard aren't Irish, Cole and Walcott aren't Barbadian etc etc. They're English, if they weren't English they wouldn't play for England it's as simple as that.

 

And if I didn't, I'm sure you and other BNP supporters will show me.

Of course, I don't live in England, and haven't in years, but don't let that stop you.

 

Thank ******** for that, I'd hate to think there were people like you in the country. I wouldn't live anywhere that I didn't feel attached to.

As for the BNP comment LOL @ you You've done nothing but attempt to divide people and countries in this thread got an agenda have we?

 

It says a lot more to having a connection with England than holding a Spanish passport like Almunia does!!

If you don't feel English yet you carry an English passport and your mom was born in England yet doesn't feel English that is fine, you are still eligible to play for England! You might choose not to play but it is still your right.

I am not sure what your angle is on the argument.

If you do not have any national pride for the country who you are a citizen for then that is your problem. We are talking about playing for a county's national team and representing them at a global tournament. Yeah, you probably shouldn't play for England then if you have those feelings toward said nation, and neither should your mom.

However, Almunia is looking to play for his own personal glory and willing to switch nationalities in order to do this. He is putting personal glory ahead of national pride.

Sorry, you might not be able to grab that concept (actually, you apparently don't, judging from your posts).

 

Why are you pushing the issue that far?Almunia was born in Basque territory.But since Basque isn't independant,that makes Almunia a Spanish citizen(if he wants to represent a country) as the Basque territory is part of Spain.This doesn't stop here,he grew up in Spain,attended spanish schools,made his way through the spanish football system as a goalkeeper and so on...He played club football in La Liga(known as the football league of Spain) for many years/seasons.If he had bad feelings about most of the thing that Spain represents,he wouldn't consider with easiness ''swaping'' the national jersey!Oleguer doesn't want to play for Spain?Ok...That's his choice which must be respected...Almunia will play for Spain if they call him...

If they didn't care,they would turn down call ups saying that they don't feel this or that!You make it sound as if players are forced to represent their national team and forced to play for a country they feel no connections with...If Rooney felt so Irish,why didn't he play for the Republic Of Ireland/Northern Ireland then?Same for Cole and Campbell with Jamaica!Why didn't they chose Jamaica instead of England??Apart from ancestry,do they have any connections with those places?They certainly don't live there!You're talking about places these players didn't propbably live in,therefor,not being from there!.The facts are that these players are born in England,based in England and are playing for England as they feel English more than anything else.We're talking about men who really know what's in their heart and know where they are going,not some clueless child who's doing things to please others rather than doing things for himself in the first place!So you're trying to make me think that some of these players,because they don't sing the national anthem,have no feelings towards that country?Way to go!Are you some kind of mindreader or something?You want to make me believe that players are forced to wear a national jersey for whatever reason??That has to be one of the best thing I have ever heard...

 

How do you know this? How? Have you asked every one of them? Have they opened their hearts out to you?

More importantly, ask yourself this, if Jamaica were ranked top 20 in the world, and England were ranked 150th, who would Sol Campbell have played for?

 

England.

 

What are you? 3 years old and you just learned how to talk?

Give it a rest an allow for some serious discuccion to take place.

 

Usually when someone has some strong feelings towards something,this person is not afraid in any way to show it.And in the case(s) we are arguing about,what better way to show it by wearing the national team jersey?

Maybe he wouldn't have,but it is far from being the case!Listen,Sol Campbell has been an England international for more than 10 years(or more!)!!!Players have refused call ups in the past because they could have represented more than 1 country and they felt that they had a stronger link towards a certain country than the other(s).Now I believe that if Sol Campbell has this much time of international football under his belt wearing the England jersey,that's because he probably feels English don't you think?The guy was born in England and has spent much of his entire life(schools,friends,football,traditions,way of life....mostly everything) there so far.If your mother doesn't feel English even if she was born there,well that's her case!Doesn't mean it's the same for everyone outhere!To each his/her own.And in the case of Sol Cambell,he has proven that he feels English by wearing the jersey of the national team of England and he hasn't shown/expressed some regrets so far.

 

Birchall is an example of a mercenary if I ever heard of one.

Also, Colin Kazim-Richards is an interesting story. He's English and Turkish yet he chose to play for Turkey despite playing club football first in England. Now he starts on Champions League side Fenerbahce.

 

I guess that would make you somewhat new at following the game,am I correct?Ever heard of Mauro Camoranesi,Guillermo Franco,Francileudo Santos?

 

Francileudo Santos is clearly a mercenary.

Mauro Camoranesi is problematic, his grandparents are Italian most of his professional career has been in Italy (he only played 38 games in Argentina, compared with 77 in Mexico and over 200 in Italy). Reportedly, he even refused to be traded from Juventus to Lyon, Valencia or Liverpool. So one could say that he immigrated back to Italy, but we also have him saying

which sounds a great deal like a mercenary.

Guillermo Franco does seem like a case of a immigrant to me. A player that couldn't reach the top level at his home country, goes to a lesser (in footballing terms) country and settles there. While playing in the second country league he became a naturalized citizen (the same way anyone could become a naturalized citizen of that country). Unless there are statements like the one Camoranesi made, I don't see anything wrong here. If you disallow Franco you basically say that immigrants can't play for a national team, that seems wrong to me.

 

If you go a few pages back in this thread,according to a member of this forum,when Argentina faced Mexico in the round of 16 at the last World Cup,Guillermo Franco asked to be on the bench for the match as he didn't want to face his ''fellow countrymen''! .Now if this is true(it probably is!),there is no way that he feels Mexican then...and from then on should never wear the Mexican national jersey again!This is the type of players that I cannot stand!Those who absolutely want to play national team football even if this mean,having to wear a national jersey that you don't have true feelings for!These kind of players are a disgace for the game on the international level.

Oh and Camoranesi,had he been more patient,he could have possibly/probably received a call to play for Argentina instead.How can you feel 100% Argentine when you don't even wear the Argentina jersey when playing internationally??He treats international football as if it's backyard footy....Disgraceful!

 

If he made this statement then I agree with you.

Again, if not for the statements he made I would have said the he was a legitimate immigrant. Based on his statements, I do have a problem with him playing for any national team other than Argentina.

 

if there were more rules in place in europe regrading foriegners then there would be less brazilians playing for other national teams. There needs to be a limit on non-european players.

 

Yeah!Sepp Blatter as said recently that he wants to limit the amount of foreigners in club football.That might aswell reduce the amount of mercenaries altogether!

 

And make the EPL, Eredivisie, Ligue 1, La Liga, and the Bundesliga drop in quality of play.

 

Granted...

I wonder if Blatter has thought about that....

 

I agree with you, bro. Its a shame that International football has come to this.
I am a Ghanaian and can tell you that Ghana has suffered from Player Poaching in the last decade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_national_football_team#Players_with_Ghanaian_roots

Many Ghanaian Youth players have opted to play for other Countries at Youth level and most of them never make it to the Senior National Teams of these Countries - whilst Ghana cannot use them either cos they have Youth Caps and getting FIFA Player Committee to make them switch allegiances before they turn 21, is a hassle the Ghana FA does not wanna go thru

In the much quoted Gerald Asamoah case, Asamoah came to sit on Ghana's bench (named among the substitutes) in the 2000 African Nations Cup Qualifier v Eritrea on 28th February 1999. Ghana won the game 5-0 and Asamoah never entered that game, so was still uncapped when he went back to his Club in Germany.

He later got a callup from then German Coach Rudi Völler after he received his German Passport and became a German International to this day. Numerous Ghanaian examples abound especially Youth National Team Players.



Already this year, there have been calls in Italy suggesting they should naturalize Ghanaian superkid Mario Barwuah Balotelli of Inter Milan and get him into the Italian Youth Teams, when he doesn't even have Italian Citizenship yet and has already been called up by Ghana's senior team but hasn't played a game yet, so is still uncapped. I think it will be a shame if Italy ever caps a 100% African kid, cos i cannot see Ghana ever capping an Italian Plyer even if he was a genius

 

Exactly. I agree

 

Asamoah is hardly an example of "Player Poaching". He moved to Germany when he was 12, his whole professional career was in Germany. It is a safe bet that from the time he was 12 until he started playing for Hannover he was trained in Germany and not in Ghana.

As far as I'm concerned this example shows us that sometime a player has two legitimate choices. Based on your information, it looks like Ghana had the first chance to have him and missed on it. I agree that he is a player that Ghana could have had, but Germany didn't "poach" him.

 

Players like
George Boateng, born Nkawkaw in Ghana
Riga Mustapha, born in Accra, Ghana
Kofi Mensah, born in Koforidua, Ghana
Fred Benson, born in Tema, Ghana
.
.
etc and raised in Ghana played for Dutch National Youth Teams and rarely ever made it to the senior Oranje level.
Now Ghana is currently fighting back to get Quincy Owusu-Abeyie eventhough he was born in Amsterdam to Ghanaian Parents. We'll probably get some others like Ajax's Jeffrey Sarpong as well