Great players that turned down national team call-ups to play for a weaker country?

Borussia Dortmund's Nuri Şahin, born in Germany of turkish decent, chose to play for Turkey instead of Germany in 2005 though he was asked to play by the DFB.

Ironically, he scored his first goal for Turkey against Germany in a friendly...then Germany went on to place 3rd in the WC while Turkey failed to even qualify.

He was the youngest player to play a Bundesliga match at 16 years old. Also, the youngest Turkish player to play the men's senior team.

 

Mustapha Hadji: He was offered to play for France youth team, but opted for Morocco. Given his form in 1998, he might have made it on the bench for WC 1998. Instead, he played for Morocco in that WC. His goal against Norway was one of the best in that WC Finals.



Yıldıray Baştürk, Ümit Davala and İlhan Mansız from Turkey's 2002 WC campaign were born in Germany, but I don't know whether they were ever approcaghed by the German NTs.

Well, someone will mention Ryan Giggs sooner or later.

 

Owen Hargreaves turned down playing for Canada and chose England

 

Giuseppe Rossi turned down playing for the US and will chose Italy.

Wait, he wasn't called up though. doh.

 

im pretty sure the US is not an elite national team and italy is not exactly a weak one.

 

You missed the joke(s)....

 

Ryan Giggs turned down England to play for Wales.

 

They would need German citizenship first. Bastürk has a German passport I think, but I have never heard of the others to have one. Being born in Germany wouldn't be enough.

 

Sissoko and Kanoute(both Mali internationals) were born in France. Don't know if they were ever approached to represnt Le Tricolore though.

 

When did that happen?

 

some time around never.

 

Thomas Dooley was closer to playing for Germany than most people realize. He was called up twice, but both times he was injured shortly before the national team convened. Then he was offered the chance to play for the US, and accepted.

 

Don't know why people still think this, giggs played foe england schoolboys because he went to school in england, can't really see him commuteing to manchester from cardiff everyday, his mum is welsh, his dad is welsh, his whole damn family are welsh therefore RYAN GIGGS IS WELSH, he did not turn down englan because he is not eligeable to play for england. hope people can finally understand that

 

Actually his dad's from Sierra Leone (grandad? one of them). But the point stands - Giggs was never, ever eligible to play for England.

 

Sergej Barbarez turned down Germany to play for Bosnia & Herzegowina. (He never got the call-up, but it was known in the media that he WILL get the call-up but Barbarez went on German TV to dismiss this possibility because he felt he could only play for Bosnia. He said he was honored to be respected in such a way, but said "no thanks" nevertheless)...

20-year old Mustafa Kucukovic, who plays for HSV and has been playing for the U-19 and U-21 German National Teams, has also said in interviews with the Bosnian Media that he will pick Bosnia before he turns 21 and will play from then on with the Bosnian National Team.

So turning down Germany to play for Bosnia is something I would say belongs in this topic

 

On the other side of the spectrum, you have guys like:
Haris Medunjanin, who picked the U-21 Dutch National Team over the first team of Bosnia.. it has been reported that he has now changed his mind, and wants to play for Bosnia, but that he will not be able to since he has played an official game for Holland (Euro Cup 06 I believe) and therefore will not be eligible.

The same has happened for a young Bosnian goalkeeper, Eldin Jakupovic, who played a few times for the U-21 Bosnian National Team, but decided to "try his luck" with the first team of Switzerland, since they were headed for the World Cup in 06. He never got to play and was stuck on the bench for Switzerland.

Not too long ago, the new Bosnian Coach gave him the call-up, and he came. 2 Days before the match with Norway, Bosnia was notified by UEFA that Eldin Jakupovic does NOT have the right to play for Bosnia anymore, since he already "chose" Switzerland.

So those are some examples of young players picking the "big" National Teams over their natural, yet "weak" Country, and later on regretting it.

 

Kind of the opposite but Zidane was turned down by the Algerian National team because he wasn't "fast enough" so he went to play for France. So it's more of a weaker team turning him down and him having to go to a Great team

 

Interesting!

 

blame kermali.

although zizou he wasn't eligible.

on a similar note, what about zlatan approaching bosnia, getting turned down, and getting called up by sweden.

also, kanoute picking mali was somewhat controversial, since he's lived his whole life in france, and wasn't really identified as malian.

 

El Ahmadi (born and raised in Twente) has chosen Morocco and the Dutch FA are going to regret that they never tried to persuade him to go Dutch.

 

That's not true. Even Croatia approached him (his mother is Croatian) but he claimed he wanted to play for Sweden from day one.

 

?

i had read he approached bosnia and was turned down.


http://www.abc.net.au/sport/columns/200604/s1623294.htm

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=368708&root=worldcup&&cc=5901

i had also read that bosnia didn't believe in him, and wanted him on a b team (in teh millenium cup), while he insisted to play on the a team.

 

Guado, you are correct.
I've met Zlatan several times and what you just wrote is the entire truth.

Of course, with interviews with the Croatian and Swedish media, he always insists how he is "Swedish 100%" and that his dream was to play for Sweden.

His father, to be more precise, Sefik, approached Bosnia but they claimed they had "tons of guys like him" that are just as talented, and offered him a "try" for the B National Team. Zlatan and his dad declined, and the rest is history.