After five years with a green card and his defection from Cuba during the 2007 Gold Cup, Ozzie is now an American citizen. While this doesn't impact the Sounders from a roster standpoint since he already counted as a domestic, this is a significant development for him on a personal standpoint. So congrats, Ozzie! And, yes, the question running around the inter-tubes is whether or not Ozzie can play for the USMNT now.. That is a darn good question and it appears that FIFA rules do nothing to help with this. Obviously Ozzie played for Cuba in the 2007 Gold Cup so that should cap tie him to Cuba and prevent him from playing for the USMNT, but apparently FIFA rules do allow a player who has had their citizenship stripped against their will to have their "cap" transferred to another country that they are a citizen of. http://www.sounderatheart.com/2012/6/19/3097538/osvaldo-alonso-gains-us-citizenship
I hope so, that would suck for a guy like Ozzie to not be able to play for ANY national team. but, i think overall it's better for him & his family to have proper us citizenship. i'm happy he got it, and will be happier if he can play in red/white/blue for us someday
We still follow the Oz here in Charleston and also add our congrats. And someone tell him plenty of US students fail US history!! I also dug into FIFA rules years ago when he played for us but could never reconcile the fact that he left of his own free will. Cuba may have stripped him of his nationality but to say it was against his will could probably be argued. I suspect that rule was intended for folks who lost their citizenship because they supported the wrong politician/dictator & were expelled, thrown into jail, etc. In any event, FIFA does allow for hearings on players with special circumstances and his is a great story of perseverance. Now, my question is the part about his family coming to the US. I wouldn't have thought that Cuba would let the family of a defector leave.
I may be in the minority here but I don't think it'd be fair if Alonso could play for the USA. He represented CUBA in several FIFA "A" international matches. He sought to seek sporting opportunities in USA, citing Maykel Galindo as his inspiration. He used the "Wet feet, dry feet" policy to his advantage, he had "dry feet" as a result of playing in an international tournament in USA. I don't think FIFA should let him become eligible for the USMNT because it sets precedent. What would stop USA from hosting an exhibition involving the Cuba national team and putting the Cuban players in a situation where they know they can defect and claim political asylum through the WFDF policy and be eligible for USA within five years irrespective of how many times they have represented Cuba? It doesn't seem to be fair system and leaves Cuba's FA at a disadvantage. It would effectively treat the Cuban national team as a feeder team to the USMNT and no amount of caps for Cuba will be able tie a player to the Cuban national team if USMNT come calling. The sporting issue here is that Cuba choose not to select players who play abroad. This is where FIFA should be intervening.
You're assuming the USMNT has a reason to do swipe players from the Cuban national team and that the Cuban national team would, somehow, be unaware of the intentions of the USMNT. The reality is that Cubans expect people to try and defect when they come to the US and they monitor the guys pretty closely. That obviously doesn't stop people from getting away, but they don't make it easy for them.
Osvaldo Alonso has said he'd be interested in the USMNT, what would stop another Cuban defector taking inspiration from Alonso, seeing as Alonso was inspired by Galindo? The awareness of the Cuban FA shouldn't come into it, there shouldn't be a situation (exclusive to the Cuba/USA relationship because of the Cuban Adjustment Act) where a nation can lose full 'cap-tied' players to another nation because of a political situation. That's what I'm getting at.
Galindo wasn't the first Cuban player to defect and Alonso certainly wasn't the last. It seems like every Gold Cup there is at least one Cuban that defects. The political situation between the US and Cuba also isn't one sided. There is no reason why Cuba has to ban players from their national team just because they choose to immigrate to the US. It is an easy fix, but one that Cuba won't take because of the very political issues that the US uses to justify the Cuban Adjustment Act.
I wasn't suggesting Galindo was the first. I was referencing this article where Alonso says: "(Galindo) kind of inspired me to leave Cuba," I agree with you re: Cuba calling up foreign-based players, not likely to happen but they'd have a stronger team.