Dual nationals who could suit up for the US.

But again , I am not talking about citizenship and that isn't the point.

I want the USSF to petiton FIFA on allowing US or MLS based foregners green card holders or residents who are on a path to maybe one day get their citizenship play for the national team.

 

I don’t think that’s exactly true. The exceptions allowed are for EU member states. That is an official political affiliation. They have eliminated citizenship barriers across the EU. They don’t even need passports to cross borders. They can vote in the country of residence.
The rules are different for the rest of the World.
Maybe you think we can form an American Union with the other countries in this hemisphere, but don’t count on it. We’d have to tear down a great new border wall, for one thing.


Just loose the idea FIFA is going to bail us out of our own America first morrass. It’s not going to happen.

 

The toughest part of getting to US citizenship is getting a Green Card. Coming to the US on a work visa isn't too hard for educated folks. But getting an actual Green Card is tougher because you have to qualify and perhaps even wait (the wait for people born in India to get an employer sponsored GC has been running as long as 12-20 years after getting approved).

Athletes have it easier because they are selected for being tops in their fields. The funny thing about GCs for soccer players is that it's easier to get approved if you have some international acclaim -- like NT/YNT caps & Olympic medals --- making it harder for you to qualify for the USMNT under FIFA rules.

 

I mean your asking for something FIFA is never going to go for. And also you’d basically have to do it for every country not just the United States and the whole thing would basically be a free for all. Under the same system a Christian Pulisic could play for England if he desired.

You have to draw the line somewhere and citizenship is clearly the place to do so. More broadly though it’s not as if any MLS based green card holders or foreigners would dramatically change our team. They would help but it wouldn’t be game changing.

 

Not so sure. I don't think MLS is such a bad level and shouldn’t be discounted. I'm sure there are many foregners playing in the league who can come in and play for the US and contribute greatly. Of course they will help and they will have especially in November 2017 when they were eliminated by T & T.

For that matter, Argentines in Mauro Camoranesi and Daniel Osvaldo. or other italobrasiliani in Eder , Jorginho , Emerson Palmieri and Rafael Toloi who all won medals with the exception of Eder I believe.

 

I think the current rules are solid. Compare that to basketball which is turning into a mercenary free for all (see - Nigeria’s current squad) and always has been to a degree (CCV’s dad played for the French basketball team).

 

I believe FIBA is a lot different than FIFA is though but I don’t really follow basketball. I saw that France beat Team USA. That’s a great result for them.

Anyway, I think many things could change in years to come. There was a time that FIFA wouldn’t allow youth national team players appear for another country or the switching of allegiances at the senior level and that has since changed. They wouldn’t ever budge on that rule and no one thought that would have happened in the 90’s. Looking back, that wasn’t that long ago.

The Bosman ruling also changed many things and looking at the Serie A as an example, there is an influx of foreigners starting and playing on each team. Inter won the champions league without any Italian players other than putting in Materazzi in the 92nd minute I believe it was. Looking at Roma, they have hardly any Italians playing. Sooner or later, more foreigners starting for national teams will be inevitable.

 

I wonder how many of these MLS Green Card holders would already be cap-tied to their home country (or need the new 3 year waiting period to switch).

 

Just using one name off the top of my head, Diego Rossi played for Uruguay's youth team but hasn't appeared in 3 years and never for their senior team. He is now in his 4th MLS season.could easily play for the US at only 23 years of age an is much better than our current forwards.

He is just one example but there have been many others though the years.

 

I agree the rules are fine now. The fact it sometimes takes too long to get a green card or to go from a green card to full citizenship is a domestic political and bureaucratic issue. Redress lies at petitioning Congress for change, not FIFA rules.

That said, I'm not into recruiting MLS players as pure mercenaries. We have enough talent coming through and our country is globalized enough that we can have interesting dual nationals pop up in random places. If someone like Dom Dwyer gets a few caps here and there through residency/marriage then that's fine but we shouldn't actively strive for that as a substitute for development.

FWIW and without getting into the weeds of a pitiful debate, I wish that the Funes Mori brothers would have been eligible. When someone grows up here as a child but doesn't become eligible, that feels like a missed opportunity.

 

Under the new rules, he should be eligible once he becomes a citizen. Would be interesting to see if we ever pick up a valuable player that way.

 

I agree. You would think after all these years , we should in fact be at a place where we can pick players to get us beyond the second round of a WC. We couldn’t even qualify last time though and lost to T & T who was playing only for pride. I don’t think things are all that great at all.

He is still young enough to get citizenship and play in a World Cup or a few tournaments.

Watching Costa Rica vs. Canada and thery are saying there are a lot of American born players playing in the tournament.

 

I'm pretty sure none of the players are US-born. Ariel Lassiter was born in Costa Rica & Tesho Akindele was born in Canada. Both were US-eligible, but opted for another track.

Anyone else you were thinking of? It's possible we missed someone, so let us know so we can track them (for the fun of it).

 

Ayo Akinola had a cap and a goal for the USMNT and used the one-time switch to represent Canada internationally.

 

Yes, and he's not on the field tonight because of an ACL injury.

Anyone else?

 

I don't know I'm just going by what the announcers (Cobi Jones and I forget the other guys name) just said during the broadcast. He said they are choosing other nations as they can’t get picked by the US because of too much competition. I'm certainly not keeping tabs on who they are though.

Interesting story…Lassiter was born in Costa Rica because his dad Roy supposedly escaped to play there and hide from the police for burglary.

If recall correctly , prior to the MLS startup, he was spotted by a sherriff in North Carolina in 1995 I believe it was on ESPN after playing for the USA. He then turned him in Roy ended up later spending 30 days in jail just before the 1996 MLS season.

Another story no one knows or will talk about is Ariel Lassiter was also kicked off the Cal Poly soccer team and out of school in the summer of 2014 along with coach Paul Holocher who helped him cheat on his term paper.

 

Well, they were here from 2001-2007. It’s a bit of a stretch to say they grew up here or sought citizenship.

Both tried to latch on with Argentina. Both had caps. ( Ramiro 26, Rogello 1) I don’t think the USA was ever in the picture.

 

We would had a chance with Rogelio, I think. He had to wait a long time to become eligible for Mexico so that would have given us a window.

If they were eligible, we also would have been able to call them into YNT squads while they were in Dallas so maybe that would have made an impact.

 

The tough thing is that they were ready to break out, but weren't in the US legally. Really hard to sign 2 foreigners at FC Dallas at the time because there wasn't a homegrown player rule and they couldn't compete with the money they could make in Argentina or elsewhere.

Waiting 5 years after they got a Green Card just wasn't in the cards. Both of them were River Plate 1st team players within that window.

Yura Moyseyan, Vedad Ibisevic & Jack Harrison were similar players who just couldn't justify waiting in the US to get citizenship while the money in Europe was calling.

 

from his wiki”

so he didn’t wait very long. And he was a naturalized Mexican citizen. and he never declared interest in the USA.

cosidering the state of the USMNT in 2018, would you have wanted to join?

 

Chicken and egg problem there. He wasn't interested but he never became eligible to become a citizen. I'm saying things could have been different if he had become eligible based on the 6-7 years he lived here as a teenager.

 

after he resided in Texas his path, along with his Brother’s , was Argentina, where he spent 6 years going through the youth system. The USA was not in the young player’s mind. He washed out in Argentina because he had the bad Luck to be on the only River Plate team ever to be relegated to the B. Argentina doesn’t call up players from the second division. That sorta eliminated him from consideration competing against European based players.

so he went to Mexico to get better. It’s undeniable that liga MX is a better place to do that than MLS right now.

 

Which former Italian colonies are you referring to?

 

Maybe meant Argentina? With all the Italians that immigrated to Argentina in the last 150 years, you wonder why Italy never made them a colony?

Italy could have easily used those Italo argentini in Daniel Passarella , Alberto Tarantini , Cuciuffo, Oscar Ruggeri, Ricardo Giusti, Pedro Troglio , Caniggia, Biglia , Lavezzi and of course that guy named Messi!