the cap to spector, while cool, seemed to be out of left field. I pondered this, "why did Arena cap Spector?" sure, we were already qualified, but the kid hadn't played first team at man-u in some time. sure there's the west brom rumour, but he's still just playing for man-u's reserves. I remember reading the spector got a work permit due to a german passport. this got me to thinking, could spector have played for the german national team? then I remembered alecko getting capped last year, also bizarre as an unproven rookie. next quesiton, didn't alecko's old man play for the iranian national team? ala, alecko could have played for iran? oh yes, jeff cunningham, capped by the us, who drew heat from his country of birth, Jaimaca. is it a case of Bruce Arena capping some fringe and/or rookie players to make sure we never have to face them and/or insure that their nat team playing time comes with us? just a thought.
Alecko's cap doesn't count, because it was a friendly, as opposed to a FIFA-sanctioned event. Regardless, I doubt there's any risk of Alecko suiting up for Iran. Carlo Llamosa is a naturalized citizen. Danny Szetela could play for Poland. Whitbread? Could he play for England? Adu could play for Ghana. Spector can only play for the US because he's now cap-tied due to: Playing for the senior team and appearing in a FiFA-sanctioned event (WCQ).
Alecko benefited from being on one of two teams that weekend that did not have a regular season MLS match. That's why the US-Wales match featured lots of Quakes and DCU players iirc. I believe, if you're making a comprehensive list, it would be quite long because a lot of countries have pretty slack rules about who can claim citizenship through ancestry. I'm not sure about this, but I think Claudio Reyna "might" have played for Argentina or Portugal and Tab Ramos might have played for Uraguay.
robin fraser could have played for jamaica also, i believe one of or both of cory gibbs parents are from jamaica so he could have played for them too. Mark Chung could have played for Jamaica or Canada and Gooch could have played for Nigeria. Whitbread is still eligible to play for England with the new rules I believe
Reyna, I think, would probably have been elgible for Argentina. John O'Brien holds a Dutch passport. Gooch could have played for Nigeria. Nancy - here are the rules for player Eligibility (concerning Esky) Esky played in the Olympic Qualifying tournament and is now cap tied to USA. as is Zak Whitbred.
This is a pretty long list. Of the players that have played for the senior national team at least once since Bruce Arena took over, these are the ones THAT I KNOW OF (there could be others) who are eligible for another passport. Players in italics are not cap-tied to the US under current FIFA rules. Jeff Agoos - Switzerland (birth) Chris Armas - Puerto Rico/Cuba (parents) Imad Baba - Palestine (parents) Marcelo Balboa - Argentina (parents) Edson Buddle - Jamaica (parents) Mark Chung - Canada (birth), Jamaica (parents) Ramiro Corrales - Mexico (parent) Jeff Cunningham - Jamaica (birth) Landon Donovan - Canada (parents) Tom Dooley - Germany (birth) Alecko Eskandarian - Iran (Parents) Robin Fraser - Jamaica (birth) Nick Garcia - Mexico (parents) Eddie Gaven - Ireland (parents) Cory Gibbs - Jamaica (parents) Diego Gutierrez - Colombia (birth) Henry Gutierrez - Cuba (birth) Marcus Hahnemann - Germany (parents) John Harkes - Scotland (parents) Tim Howard - Hungary (parents) Jovan Kirovski - Macedonia (parents) Roy Lassiter - Costa Rica (marriage) Carlos Llamosa - Colombia (birth) Pablo Mastroeni - Argentina (birth), Italy (parents) Tony Meola - Italy (parents) Joe-Max Moore - Bolivia (marriage) Oguchi Onyewu - Nigeria (parents) Preki Radosavljevic - Yugoslavia (parents) Tab Ramos - Uruguay (birth) Ante Razov - Croatia (parents) David Regis - France/Martinique (birth) Claudio Reyna - Argentina/Portugal (parents) Nick Rimando - Mexico/Philippines (parents) Tony Sanneh - Zambia (parents) Jon Spector - Ireland (parents) Earnie Stewart - Holland (birth) Ryan Suarez - Uruguay (parents) John Thorrington - South Africa (birth)/England (parents) Richie Williams - Costa Rica (marriage) Also, some guys who are likely to be capped by Arena in the next year or two like Freddy Adu (Ghana), Robbie Russell (Ghana), Ricardo Clark (Trinidad and British Guyana), and Zak Whitbread (England) are eligible to play for another country, under current FIFA rules.
please see above Sandon. Olympic qualifying ties you, and you have to be under 21 to declare for a different nation. also, this is the definition of an "A" Match. by general rule of thumb, I think you can safely say that any FIFA senior Tournament, and any friendly thats falls on those official FIFA friendly days count as "A" matches. USA has played in 2 this year. vs Holland, vs Poland
I believe that playing for youth national teams can also link a player to a country. I read something about this when Adu got his first youth international cap. Anyway, because of this, a lot of the young players on your list probably are all ready stuck with us.
no, thats actually not true. Read the rules I've quoted above. Says nothing about Youth Tournaments or: http://www.fifa.com/fifa/statutes/statutesdocs/FIFA_statutes_08_2004_E.pdf its a PDF file. Page 51
According to Eddie, he has no obvious means of Irish citizenship that he knows of. Having been capped in an official youth tournament for us, he's ours.
Zak Whitbread has played in an Olympic qualifier and therefore is not eluigible to play for England. Jonathan Spector was capped in the last semifinal qualifier for the US, so he cannot play for Germany(fixed your post by the way).
Pat Noonan could have played for Ireland correct? I think I remember a story about this on these boards earlier
As I recall, the FIFA rule permits a player who has been capped in a FIFA-sanctioned youth tournie to switch national teams only if at the time the player was capped in the youth match, the player was eligible for both teams. So players like Gaven and Spector, who were ineligible to play for Ireland and Germany, respectively, when they were capped in the U-17 World Cup, became cap-tied to the U.S. way back then.
I need to correct my other post. It seems FIFA ruled in June of 2003 that players who performed for U-23 or U-20 national teams but not the full squad they could switch countries. Before this ruling, playing for these teams bound players to a country. Here's a Boston Globe article that discusses this issue with regards to Freddy Adu: http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2004/04/27/ghana_makes_a_play_for_adu/
Yikes! I forgot all about the Olympics, but what Jonez has posted aboves indicates that this does not cap-tie them if they're under 21 at the time. I'd guess Alecko was 21 then. Also, Apoo, the rule you quoted mentioned switching during the tournament. So, does that mean, given all eligibility rules, a player could switch once the tourney's over?
Whoever said Preki's parents are from Yugoslavia, isn't he too? I think he was born in Belgrade, and his first pro team was Red Star.
So what current or recent USMNT players are Jewish? Only one I can think of off the top of my head is Jeff Agoos. A little correction: Sanneh's father is from Gambia, not Zambia.
FWIW - and the point is moot since he's already cap-tied to the US - Esky considers himself Armenian even though his father played for Iran. There is a large Armenian minority in Northern Iran, and back when Andranik played for Iran, Armenia was part of the USSR.
What this shows us is that the good players are still coming from families who immigrated to this country recently. Also, that many black players have ties to the Caribbean, mainly Jamaica.
for some reason i get the idea that rimando played in the gold/confed cup. maybe its cuz he was gettin caps round that time...