I may be biased as a Red Bulls fan but seriously why is USA Soccer (Yes I know, how silly of me, but anyway) not trying to naturalize and cap him. I mean Russia had Brazilian Fullback and we have already seen Marcos Sena and Diego Costa naturalize and play key roles for Spain and Deco for Portugal. I acknowledge he may be Jeff Cunningham 2.0 but he also maybe very useful especially as we have to bridge the experience gap with all these young strikers.
Interesting at the very least. Wonder what his feelings are on the matter; certainly the subject must have come up at some point.
Yes he is 33 but look at our striker pool. Jozy is often injured and Wood is constantly struggling for form and then there is massive drop off to Sargent and Noko. Not questioning their talent but they have like 3 caps combined so they still have a way to go to become MNT regulars and proven. That leaves the next tier which would be Dyer and I am not sure who else. I can see BWP being useful for this group and immediately improving our options for the next 2 years at least.
Dude is going to be 34 next time we have a competitive game. Aside from Jozy/Wood (and Morris if he can ever get healthy) there's Dwyer, Novakovich, Ramirez, Sapong (not having a great season but has looked good in recent friendlies for the US) and for that matter Weah could well be getting regular minutes at the 9 this season either at PSG or more likely on a loan.
If he were several years younger I would definitely be interested in his citizenship timeline, but alas he's 33 and would be 37 come next World Cup. BWP also has 5 caps for the England U-20 team, no idea if those were in a competitive fixture or just friendlies, so he might not even be eligible to play for the US. Plus even if were 27 or 28 instead of 33, BWP just received his green card early last year, so short of marrying a US citizen, he won't be eligible to apply for US citizenship until early 2022. So long story short he's definitely not an option for the US national team.
Friendlies and the Toulon Tournament. As I understand it, because he's never played for the senior team, he hypothetically can get naturalized and file a one-time switch. However, he doesn't seem interested in doing so. He's been approached by Jamaica and Grenada, who he qualifies for through his parents, to file a one-time switch, but he turned them down. Maybe he might feel a special connection the USA that he doesn't to those nations, but my guess is that he feels bound to England and won't play for anyone else. He apparently does have a green card, though.
Without a citizenship timeline, or even NT ambitions (BWP hasn't really indicated that he REALLY wants to play International soccer in the face of England rejection), the point is moot. He can't play for us now, and perhaps for years. He's expressed zero interest in doing so. How's this USSF's failure again...?
Not if he takes time from Sargent. Or anyone else under 21 who might step up. The US doesn't need to look good the next 18 months. They do need to play the pups and find a coach.
Not saying it was USSF's fault, just be cynical about USSf being proactive on an issue. Not blaming them.
If one has never played a competitive game for his senior side he could file a one-time switch, with one giant "if": as long as he was already eligible (in other words, a citizen) for the country that he'd be switching to at the time he first had to register. If he never played a competitive U-xx game for England, then he should theoretically come available once he naturalizes, if that were his choice to do so. But if he did play competitively for England, then he'd be ineligible to ever play for the US because he was not a US citizen at the time that he became provisionally cap-tied to England. You can think of this as the "No, Qatar does NOT get to raid the Brazilian youth national teams of every U-xx player that doesn't make the full national team" rule. Qatar would have had to have already scouted that Brazilian and offered him citizenship BEFORE he went on to play competitive matches for the Brazilian youth sides in order to get that player.
I'm not saying he wants to play for us, but in general players could be willing to play for us but not worse national teams like Jamaica and Grenada.
Plenty of time for Qatar to bribe FIFA to change that rule before 2022. Although, there are plenty of solid professional players in the major countries that have never been capped even at youth level. If I were the Qataris (and therefore had no scruples), I would do something like this: -Give Zidane an 18 wheeler full of cash to coach through 2022 -Put him to work over the next year or two identifying 2-3 dozen quality players in France and elsewhere in Europe (the Americas too where appropriate) who have never been capped by their home country and get them to come play in Qatar for a few years (long enough to satisfy FIFA's residency requirements before the WC in exchange for a shxtload of cash and the opportunity to play for Zidane and in the WC -Emphasis on recruiting Muslim players, particularly with Arabic heritage (Yamil Asad, who has never been capped by Argentina at any level, is precisely the type of player I'd have in mind) -If anyone raises an objection to this, call them a racist and an Islamophobe Zidane might have too much class to go along with the last part but Qatari officials could take care of that for him while "letting him take the high road". They won't be able to win the WC this way, but combined with a "lucky" draw and "fortunate" refereeing decisions they can probably put together a team capable of getting out of their group.
It just is man, if the USSF weren't such a bunch of fvck ups, we could get C. Ronaldo and Messi to play for the USA.
I don't even know where to start with this. First off, BWP got his green card in March of '17. If he were married to an American, that would give him a three year wait for citizenship. He is not, therefore it's a five-year wait. That means March of 2022. If nothing goes wrong. BWP was born in March of 1985. That would make him 37 when he is eligible for US citizenship. How many players make their national team debut in a World Cup year at 37? BWP is eligible thru heritage to represent several Caribbean countries and never made a move to do so. I just don't think it's a priority for him.
Martinez, yes. ..... But unless we want another attacking player with magnificent talent for selfishly not passing and yet consistently rocketing the ball to anywhere than in the net, please not Almiron. And as for Barco, well, we already have our own native born John "Builder of Team Unity" Harkes. No need to import another such genius at murdering esprit de corps. [unless you had Gressel in mind, who could definitely add some pretty nicely talented backbone to the USMNT].