Los 289 jugadores que no representarán a su país de nacimiento en el Mundial pic.twitter.com/mkeTIrL0n9— Jaime F. Macias (@Jaimefmacias) June 2, 2026 Absolutely insane number of French born players t this World Cup, England probably second, or maybe 3rd given the whole Curaçao team is Dutch
I count 35 Dutch born players, 5 at Cabo Verde and 3 at Morocco plus Curacao. Not sure if Brobbey's brother, playing for Ghana, was born in the Netherlands. If so, 36. Edit: Brobbey's brother was born in Amsterdam
Just had a closer look at the list that was posted and saw Igor Matanovic's missimg for Croatia so it's at least 290 players! Npw wondering if their might be more missing... As for Matanovic I think he could become a real loss for Germany in the future as his profile is quite unique here. By far the best hold-up play with his back to goal of any Germany-developed striker imo.
There are quite a few German-born players around Europe who I didn't realise until recently were actually German-born. Players like Uzun and Maza. Like England, Germany have also lost a fair bit of dual national talent of late.
English eligible Oskar Cotton (20) who plays for Brommapojkarna in Sweden has been called up to the Sweden U21’s team for the first time I believe.
Yeah. Kenan Yildiz probably the one who hurts the most as of now since he could potentially claim a starting spot on the wing for Germany but he's always preferred Türkiye. Alajbegovic's on the trajectory to be the next big loss but all of them have preferred playing for their ancestral country. Uzun, by all accounts, was a Musiala-esque 50/50 situation but him being very close friends with Yildiz and the DFB ignoring him until his breakthrough season might have given Türkiye the edge. All of his family wanted him to represent Türkiye but he apparently preferred Germany up until he was courted by Montella. Ironically Uzun, Yildiz and Maza were all ignored at u19 level by 'the German Boothroyd' Marc Meister (not kidding btw, many Germany youth watchers really call him by that nickname lmao!) because he didn't like their character or deemed them too small! Also shows why it's important to cast a wide net at youth level: compared to England who try to call up new faces in the u15-17 range and give as many players as possible game time, even during tournaments like the u17/19 Euros, the DFB usually rarely ever changes their call-ups during a cycle and they have clear defined roles of stsrters, impact subs and 'travellers' from u16 level on. At least that's my observation when comparing both FAs.
@GermanBlade 's post made me think of Noel Buck, the American born player that won 10 youth caps with us 2023-24. He's 21 now and can't get a game for San Jose Earthquakes in the MLS. He's mostly played in the MLS development league this season. I wondered at the time if he was a player that was called up as a result of spreading the dual nat net i.e a speculative punt.
Tbf g.b I Don't think you'll ever have the regret we do with olise. For all the players we lose in the future, no one will match that loss
I would have understood more if we lost him to say Nigeria or Algeria but just has a sting in the tail to lose him to France who already boasts an impressive attack and helps them become even stronger. Thanks for bringing this up though Rover I’d just about got over it
It's a valid opinion but you can't have your cake and eat it too. If Ghanaian's allegiance should always be to Ghana then they shouldn't be allowed to settle in England in the first place. And if they should be allowed to settle, well then you lose your right to demand they play for you.
Tom atcheson makes his full debut and as a Blackburn fan he should be hanging around for England. He's 19 and he's too good a prospect to waste it on northern ireland. And I've nothing against Northern Ireland
I wonder what his opinion of Brandon Thomas-Asante is given he was born in Milton Keynes, and is of Ghanian and Jamaican descent. Once you start throwing those types of opinions around, you soon become a hypocrite.
Look at the likes of South Africa with a host of white players of European descent. Could the same be said of them but the other way around
What a backward approach! Does he not understand the cosmopolitan World we live in! I mean Christ, we live ( England ) in such a diverse community that if everyone with other heritage, other than England went to play for their ancestry root then we wouldn’t have any players, lol. I mean like Jenks says, why the hell would we help develop players and hand them on a silver spoon for everyone else to take advantage off, does he really think we’re that stupid! We would end up prioritising Englishs only players and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want that and would become extremely messy.