Michael Parkhurst, the center back and MLS rookie of the year for the New England Revs, has dual citizenship with the US and Ireland, although he's mostly a US citizen, and has played for the US U-17s. I don't think he's expressed any interest in playing for Ireland, and it was a bit of a surprise that he didn't get a call to camp for the US nats. But he's got great potential for the future, although central defense is going to be a spot where we have a lot of options (Oneywu, Imehelu, Parkhurst, Whitbread, Marshall, etc.) The Irish citizenship would allow him to play in Europe much more easily.
because to many it's like saying that there arent good domestic players when in fact there are...i personally dont have a problem with naturalized players, but i do feel that 3 naturalized players would be "too many"... an NT represents our country...it's easy to see why so many people dont like the fact that we may have naturalized players representing our country.. but then again you have Sinha and Franco who have gotten married and /or have their kids born in Mexico so they dont get just naturalized to play for Mexico...unlike Gaitan who would just get naturalized to play and that's the main debate...
Elegantly put. Didn't FIFA make some kind of provision against that last option when Oman or some other Gulf state offered to pay some Brazilians to become citizens?
Yes, it was with Qatar, who attempted to get Ailton, Dede and Leandro (Ailton and Dede previously attempted to join the german NT, but were turned down) to obtain Qatari citizenship. FIFA's emergency committee ruled that "players who obtained a new nationality 'with no clear connection to that country' would be ineligible to play internationally for that country". Even this still seems a little open to interpretation, but it's still a good step forward.
if someone is a US citizen naturalized or not, they have every single right to be considered for the USA team. It would be outrageous if this was held against them.
Here's a link to the ruling. http://www.fifa.com/documents/static/regulations/PS 901 EN.pdf A player who assumes a new nationality may play for the new association only if (1) he, a parent, or a grandparent was born on its territory, or (2) he has lived there for two years "continuously." Jaison is right that this was in direct response to a number of Brazilians who apparently intended to change nationalities in order to play for Qatar. It may be that FIFA would not apply this ruling strictly if it was clear the player in question was changing nationalities for some other reason.
Beyond this, first generation players with heritage from non-soccer powers where soccer is popular will lead to broader support for the US team. Look at the coverage Lee Nguyen got in Viet Nam during the U-20 tournament as an example.
As an aside, but if the US ever gets a couple of Asian-Americans on the team, I expect that the support from those communities will be very good. If Nguyen and a couple of other Asians become regulars for the US, I think you'll see a lot of Asians loyally supporting them.
So what is the nationality story on Herc Gomez? Is he Mexican/USA? Is that why Bruce won't call him up?
He's both now and no ... or you'd have some story on your hands. Many South Americans in Spain take the Spanish citizenship after living there continuously for 2 years in order to be considered "domestic" players in a league where there's a low limit on the number of non-European Union footballers. Some of them, if uncapped by their original nation, are good enough to play for their new country. Hypothetically, they could, after living in England for 10 years. Realistically, there's no reason to do so, as both Spain and England are the EU members, which eliminates all work restrictions anyway. Yes, there's gambling going on in Vegas ...
And why not? There's money on the line. I know a lot of people don't like to think so, but international soccer is big - no, huge - business. Lots of people, and companies and federations and governing bodies are making money any way they can off of international socccer. The players should be allowed to work the angles, too. Sporting? Not really. But the genie is out of the bottle and the toothpaste is out of the tube and it ain't going back. As long as FIFA is selling rights fees, federations are selling tickets, broadcasters are selling advertising, promoters are getting a cut and everyone is cutting endorsement deals in international soccer, why shouldn't the players be allowed to make some more money by becoming an international player by whatever means necessary?
I don't think you can have swiss dual-citizenship. I think you're either swiss or not. I think I remember my German Prof. going on a rant about this once. Could be wrong, I was usually a little hung over for his class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_citizenship http://www.eda.admin.ch/washington_emb/e/home/legaff/howto/childr.html
Read about you in the DaMN the other day. Funny story. Wouldn't be funny now though would it? Would any country (think minnow) get away with that without sanctions nowadays?
I think you are right. When Dat Nguyen made the Cowboys, apparently it generated a lot of interest amongst the Vietnamese community, since I believe he was the first Vietnamese-American to play in the NFL. Surely the same would be true for the MNT if Lee gets capped.
There's a section's worth of drums sitting in some Torrance warehouse waiting for a reason to be dusted off and banged. Whether that's a good thing or not I don't know.
Thanks....wait till you read my book....in the hands of a publisher right now, full of similar type stories....