Dual nationals who could suit up for the US.

List is getting increasingly underwhelming LOL. Might have to add Bryan Okoh, Frantz Peirrot, and even Armand Duplantis just for depth purposes haha

Let's do a Top 10 of greatest missed Dual-Nats - for any reason and in no specific order... just a top 10. I'm curious to see what names we come up with.

1 Rossi
2 Subotic
3 Jonothan David
4 Brede Hangeland
5 Thomas Delaney
6 Julian Araujo
7 Roger Espinoza
8 Kei Kamara
9
10

Please add to the list!

 

Probably backups, depending on the timing.

Kamara scored in the Premier League in 2013 and started in 7 of 11 matches for Norwich during his loan (he wasn't retained because they were fighting relegation). He then went on loan to Middlesbrough in the Championship for the 2013/14 season and scored 4 goals in 25 matches. He was a regular starter for the 1st half of the season and off the bench in the 2nd half (missed a bunch of games in Dec./Jan. -- injury presumably) and then missed most of March & April (probably another injury). He's proved to be a fairly reliable and dependable MLS scorer over the years, though does seem to wear out his welcome at times.

Movsisyan scored 48 goals in 117 matches in Russia, mostly for Spartak. That's a tough to analyze league, but he would have been given a shot in the USMNT of 2011-2016.

 

Espen Baardsen is probably the biggest GK miss. Born & raised in the US during the days of US "keeper Nirvana." He played 65 EPL matches before retiring at 25 to become a finance bro.

 

Zion Suzuki

 

If we're counting guys who were never going to play for the US, isn't Trent Alexander Arnold US eligible?

Not sure Bryan Okoh counts as a miss yet, is he cap tied?
Some current guys who count as "missed":
Jonathan David
Zion Suzuki
Amir Richardson
Jens Cajuste
Julian Araujo

 

A lot of sources say he was eligible, but his mother was a US citizen through his grandmother. She never lived in the US, so she can't pass along citizenship to him. He was interviewed once and said his mother was American, but never called himself American. He could have become an American if she has immigrated to the US for a period of time, but that had to happen before his 18th birthday.

 

DFB is interested in Albert. Not a shocker given he has been performing like a high level 2006/07 player as a 2009 in the youth leagues. Looks like he is locked in and focused on the USYT great signs.

Over the last year or so Albert has quickly become a top 5 prospect for the… https://t.co/Mm2lOEOMog

— Youth Soccer Central (@yscentral) December 4, 2024

 

I considered Ibisevic, but I don't think he was ever eligible. He could have been eligible, if he had waited.

 

Vedad Ibisevic may still get his US citizenship and be an eligible missed dual nat... people thought he would come back to St Louis once they joined MLS (like Tim Ream lol) but he's an assistant coach with the New York Red Bulls currently headed to MLS Cup.

 

I was surprised to find out Felix Magath's father was Puerto Rican and he was seemingly USMNT- eligible as a player. I knew him as a coach but didn't know he played 43 times for West Germany.

 

Do we know for sure his mother never lived in the US?

I was looking at a New York Times article that says his grandmother for the first “steady girlfriend” of Sir Alex Ferguson before moving the United States to get married. And in interviews he says his mom is American but nothing I can seem to find that indicates where she was born or if she ever lived in the US. There are some places that suggest his mother was born in the US but I can’t find anything conclusive either way.

 

Even if he was eligible, he would never play for the US. Maybe someone we miss

 

Well, it's not easy to determine the exact details of a non-famous person and there's not much about her life online. There are lots of articles that speculate TAA's eligible to play for the US (but most of that seems to be from the Brits who assume a grandparent can pass on citizenship). There are some genealogy articles that say they don't know where TAA's mother was born. Some suggest NY. Regardless, it appears she was raised in the UK. For her to be able to pass along US citizenship, she must have resided for 5 years in the US, at least 2 years after turning 14 or moved back to the US when TAA was younger than 18.

Without solid evidence to suggest he actually holds (or is eligible to hold) a US passport, I have to leave him off any list of "dual nat misses."

 

Erwin Kostedde

https://www.dw.com/en/erwin-kostedd...always-be-second-choice-in-germany/a-55239701

 

That's one discussion we're having, though.

 

In 1990, he was wrongly accused of an armed robbery in Münster and imprisoned for six months after being identified by a witness in a one-person police line-up. "We didn't think it would be possible to find another five Black people in the area," said local police. After finally being cleared and released, he was paid 3,000 marks (less than €1,500 or $1,760 today) in compensation, but the damage was done and Kostedde's confidence was shattered.
​

No politics allowed!!

 

At some point soon, I'm going to start an all-Dark Ages USMNT XI thread. We're digging up some great candidates.

 

what d you mean by 'Dark Ages'? What is the player profile that fits this? Because I'm down haha!

 

A lot of unknown dual nats in the 60-80’s, we weren’t a serious footballing nation in those times.

 

If you really want to develop a list of the who's who of those we missed out on shouldn't you also have a who's who list of those you got! The entire point is are we doing well in this area or not and you can only really judge that if you have both sets of data!

 

new thread: 11 gets vs 11 misses!!! hahaha

 

Define "get" in this context. Cause Pulisic would be a dual-nat but he never even once considered Croatia. So should he count on that list? My first thought is they need to have played for a foreign youth national team and or spent equal or more time living outside the US.

Dest and Musah are gets. Puli, Reyna, Weah are not. The latter group were ours to lose and we did not.

 

Well, one place to start would be the "one-time switch" list:

IN
Folarin Balogun
Tyler Boyd
Teal Bunbury
Cole Campbell
Edgar Castillo
Jesse Gonzalez
Julian Green
Aron Johannsson
Fabian Johnson
Jermaine Jones
Edwin Lara
Kristoffer Lund
Aaron Maund
Andres Perea
Kenny Saief
Malik Tillman
Timothy Tillman

OUT
Danilo Acosta (to Honduras)
Ayo Akinola (to Canada)
Arturo Alvarez (to El Salvador)
Issac Angking (to Puerto Rico)
Julian Araujo (to Mexico)
Eric Calvillo (to El Salvador)
Dustin Correa (to El Salvador)
Jonathan Gonzalez (to Mexico)
Tayvon Gray (to Jamaica)
Jeremy Hall (to Puerto Rico)
Moises Hernandez (to Guatemala)
Aaron Herrera (to Guatemala)
Fuad Ibrahim (to Ethiopia)
Gerson Mayen (to El Salvador)
Nick Millington (to Guyana)
Amando Moreno (to El Salvador)
Alex Nimo (to Liberia)
David Ochoa (to Mexico)
Joshua Perez (to El Salvador)
Rubio Rubin (to Guatemala)
Oscar Sorto (to El Salvador)
Nevin Subotic (to Serbia)
Tony Taylor (to Panama)
Zarek Valentin (to Puerto Rico)
Obed Vargas (to Mexico)
Eriq Zavaleta (to El Salvador)

 

The bottom line is that our "ins" list is a lot better than our "outs" list.

 

Another useful list -- players who have appeared for USMNT and other NT:

Player (Other NT)
Esmir Bajraktarević (Bosnia)
Jermaine Jones (Germany)
Fafa Picault (Haiti)
Rubio Rubin (Guatemala)
Alex Zendejas (Mexico) *
Joe Gaetjens (Haiti)
Kenny Saief (Israel)
Tony Tchani (Cameroon)
Aaron Herrera (Guatemala)
Tyler Boyd (New Zealand)
Ayo Akinola (Canada)
Julian Araujo (Mexico)
Jonathan Gomez (Mexico)
Edgar Castillo (Mexico)
AJ De La Garza (Guam)
Martin Vasquez (Mexico)
Stefan Szefer (Poland)
Chris Armas (Puerto Rico)
Jack Marshall (Scotland)
Windsor del Llano (Boliva)
Tony Bonezzi (Israel)
Barney Battles (Scotland)
Gordon Burness (Canada)
Jeff Cunningham (Jamaica)
Cecil Moore (Ireland)