I think countries that have realistic chance of qualifying for a European Championship or World Cup Finals should be excluded in this list. Seriously, if we want to talk for World Cup contention, we could include countries such as Spain, Cameroon, Nigeria, etc.
When I created this thread, I had in minds teams like Grenada, Pakistan, and Macedonia, teams that will NEVER make the World Cup, rather than countries like Wales, Chile, and Egypt, countries that have made the World Cup before and are not crazy to think they can make it now. One player that I found was Ruel Fox for Montserrat. Montserrat has less than 5,000 people and the national team is always hovering in the 190s, but Ruel Fox played 16 seasons of English football, most of them in the Premier League, and scored 50 goals as a midfielder in his career.
How many caps does Ruel Fox have? I still think Cha Bum-Kun is a valid choice for a great player on a dead-end national team, even though he played in two World Cups, mostly because he was such a huge star while his national team was mediocre at best. I don't know whether or not Gavin Glinton of Turks & Caicos Islands is a good candidate for inclusion. Turks & Caicos are ranked in the 190s, while Glinton has been in and out of MLS and is one of the top players in USL1. Glinton is not nearly world-class, but he represents a country whose national league features exactly five clubs, all amateur, and in their last World Cup qualifiers, his national team fielded both a 43-year-old midfielder and his 17-year-old son in the same matches. Consider also Ali Al-Habsi of Oman. He has yet to appear in the Premiership for Bolton, but he was previously considered the best goalkeeper in the Norwegian league. Oman has never been even close to qualifying for the World Cup.
Frederic Kanoute Leading scorer in La Liga right now with Sevilla (formerly on the scum). Is a native of Mali.
So many Finnish players mentioned. Out of ignorance, what's been their main weakness, squadwise? You'd think with they'd have done more since we're all over here mentioning them.
Always in a tough group or all the players never played together at their peaks, Finalnd just never had that golden generation.
Tim Cahill was tied to Western Samoa up until a couple of years back when they changed the qualification rules. He was born and bred in Sydney but played for Western Samoa, the nationality of his mother, in an u-20 tournament at the age of 14. Someone from FIFA screwed up and told him that it wouldn't effect his Australian eligibility and it took a decade of lobbying FIFA before he debuted for Australia!
chilavert only went to a few cups. and it's not like cubillas and his midfield lit up a world cup either. eto'o has been to two cups already. if dwight yorke and suazo are mentioned, so should magico (who went to a cup, but was slaughtered.)
How many is enough 3? Paraguay has qualified to various world cups now. They have various quality players. How is quarterfinals in 1970 for Peru make them a dead end team? Peru was one of the great South American teams of the 70's.
Which one? There is former Benfica RB Miguel, who is among the best in the world, Nelson, who is also Portuguese, and Alcides who is brazilian.
Past and present great players I can think of (not mentioned): Robbie Keane Damien Duff Ryan Giggs Roy Keane Ole Gunnar Solskear (or however you spell his name) Dwight Yorke Off the top of my head, but you could be here all day if you listed them all.
Nelson(he was the one with fancy hairstyle) I heard that he was born in Cape Verde And that guy who sayd Robbie Keane;Roy Keane and Ole Gunnar Solskear...
He was born there, but has lived in Portugal since he was really young. I think he was naturalized when he was 16.
An interesting sub thread would be great players who never made it onto their national teams. Although to be fair, they'd probably all be French. Eric Cantona and David Ginola to name but two. Anelka as well. I suppose you could put Paul Gascoigne into that category as well, poor sod.
Well, Kanouté was born in France and played in the French U21 squad; his parents were born in Mali. I don't think he'd been to Mali before he started playing for the national team in '04. He was great in the African Nations Cup in 2004 but might not play for Mali again. There were violent riots broke in Bamako after the Eagles lost to Togo in World Cup qualifiers in March '05 (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2005/03/28/mali_soccer050328.html). He said he had never seen anything like it and was afraid for his life. Not like his experiences playing in France's national youth system. A great player, though - I have his Malian MNT jersey in home and away. Other Malian players to consider would be Mahamadou Diarra (ex-Lyon, now Real Madrid), Mohammed Sissoko (Valencia, Liverpool), and of course Salif Keita. He played back in the 1960s: 3x champion of France with St. Etienne, also played with Marseille. Apparently Marseille wanted him to become a French citizen, which he refused, so he left for Portugal and then the US. His only success with the national team was reaching the final of the African Nations Cup in '72, but he's an absolute legend in Mali and is the president of the Malian FA now. Though Mali has made it to the Africa Nations Cup final, they've never made it to the World Cup and aren't likely to soon, so any Malian player could qualify for this distinction if they have a good club career.