English players Dual Nationality thread #2

Watching that from the Ghanaian president really annoyed me. Such an irresponsible thing to say without understanding what the consequences would be for be if he had his way.

 

Nah, my kid’s first love is England, he’s not really that fussed about Sweden. Even though we haven’t won anything of late but he’s seen England play in two Euro finals had had the emotional rollercoaster of that Olly Watkins winner against the Dutch in that semi final which sent him crazy which then just cemented his love. The only thing he cheers for Sweden at is Eurovision because we make gash songs.

 

It isn't really. What would the eligibility criteria even be for a "full-blooded Ghanaian"? That isn't an ethnicity - it's a nationality. I guess we could sack the whole thing off and have a haplogroup World Cup.

 

To be fair, what he says could be consistent with having mixed heritage players in the squad. He only says that 'full-bloodied' Ghanaians should play for Ghana which implies that mixed heritage players get a choice.

Mainoo is ethnically Akan which is the largest ethnic group in Ghana and the ethnic group that Okraku belongs to. I wonder if ethnic divisions within Ghanaian society come into play here given smaller ethnic groups there are marginalised.

It is a curious gambit from the President though, national football teams are necessarily civic institutions rather than ethnic ones.

 

Well yeah, "necessarily" being the operative word. If you're going to have discrete national teams then either you have no eligibility criteria and you just let people self-identify into whichever teams they like - in which case Ghana still wouldn't be Mainoo's first choice - or you actually have to figure out what those eligibility criteria are. What set of criteria would allow Mainoo to play for Ghana but prevent him from playing for England? Presumably if his own birthplace and nationality aren't enough to qualify him then his parents' birthplaces and nationalities won't be either, so what? DNA? Exactly which genes belong eternally to Ghana - essentially formed of a collection of former British colonies that were joined together relatively recently for more convenient administration - and not to, say, Cote d'Ivoire or Togo? And since the same rules are going to have to be applied to everyone, what exactly is an ethnic Brazilian nowadays? Might have to add a few thousand pages to the FIFA Statutes if we're going to make this one work.

Probably not worth wasting too much energy on it though, honestly. At the end of the day, this is one of the key individuals who have overseen Ghana's slide to 74th in the world rankings with a decent array of talent at their disposal, so it's not hard to see why he might want to engage in a bit of deflection.

 

There's nothing about the 5,000 years of civilizational human history that implies any sort of permanent criteria when it comes to ethnic makeup within borders.

Ethnic groups are constantly changing and evolving all over the world for multiple reasons and always will. Even the Han Chinese, who are perceived as a monolithic and unchanging population, have changed dramatically over time due to constant mixing and expansion.

Trying to tie nationality inextricably to ethnic traits is foolish and dangerous imo. Your example of Brazil is a great one. An ethnic Brazilian is pretty much impossible to point to.

 

They’ve cap tied him. These boys don’t learn. https://t.co/xpMPFaSuqv

— Akóh 🎴 (@ManLikeAkoh) June 7, 2026

 

I’m assuming thats a Nigerian account, I wonder if they realise half of his family isn’t even Nigerian.

Im sure Saka, Eze and Madueke are still ruing the decision to play for England!

 

Thing is, he’s not even cap tied is he? It was a friendly

 

That's probably not true either.

 

Yeah no shit, your parents aren't Nigerian