The Bundesliga English website is almost entirely geared toward American and English audiences. Case and point: right now, the 3 largest articles on their homepage are about Mckennie, Sargent, and English youth player Reiss Nelson... Nelson's played 93' this season and Sargent still hasn't made his first team debut. If there isn't a quote from Toljan himself (and there isn't in the linked article), I'm gonna side with @bshredder here and assume that if he does switch away from Germany it will be to Croatia. I'll go as far as to out myself as a passport truther: because his parents never wed and his dad passed away before he was born, I'm not convinced he's actually eligible for a US passport... he would probably have to hire an attorney and jump through some hoops to avoid the residency requirement for his citizenship.
The residency requirement is for the dad, not Toljan himself. But, you're right that it would be a tough road to travel because they need to prove blood relationship (assuming they didn't register the birth with the embassy) AND then document his dad's residency in the US. AND they would need to show that Germany recognized his father as his biological father. Much of this would have been moot, since he was dead when Jeremy was born and there wasn't much to gain from establishing paternity with an artist (the rare non-military American dad in Germany). He would have to really want this and he would have to get a bit lucky in his mother having taken steps to establish paternity and be able to find relatives to help him with providing other evidence.
everytime someone brings back this player up it's always to discuss about playing for the US. besides being in limbo for awhile and expressing no interest in the US. Why always bring up the topic? Who wants a player to play for them with 0 interest? is it really because he's a Dortmund player and that's it?
Makes perfect sense, as 1) this is a US message board and posters here mostly care about the implications of yanks abroad that are potentially good enough to play for us, 2) our standards aren't as high as Germany's to put it mildly, and 3) he might be able to play LB in a pinch, which is a traditional area of weakness for us.
but he's in limbo club wise and has been so for a long while now. NT is the last thing that should be discussed. And its been said numerous times that him being eligible for the US is very complicated thing. Dortmund would rather take a player on loan from Real Madrid than play Toljan. Pretty much shows that he's irrelevant at his club. His contract runs until 2022 too, he needs to leave in Winter and establish himself wherever he goes.
What's your source for saying his parents never wed? I take the point about the bundesliga website being commercial nonsense. I disagree that it would be impossible for him to get a passport. 1) US Soccer (and Toljan himself) makes a lot of money, and presumably could afford an immigration attorney to help Toljan get a US passport if he really wanted one. Aren't we talking like 25k max in attorney's fees? Peanuts. Even if it's 100k (which would be ridiculous), it's still worth it to the federation given his level of talent, and ability to give us like 25-50 caps over the next ten years. Keep in mind, failing to qualify for the World Cup likely cost the Federation millions of dollars in revenue, including sponsorships, jersey sales, future tv rights, etc, even aside from money they would have got from FIFA for qualifying. So any investment that would help us qualify is worth it. 2) I understand the issues about having the deceased father. But presumably with DNA tests, he could prove he's related to any of the father's other living relatives (siblings, nieces, nephews), etc. 3) I don't think it would be that tough to establish the father's residency in the US, there are are plenty of records to do so (census, housing, voting, schooling records, social security, tax forms, employment forms, etc.) 4) I assume he has a German birth certificate that lists his father...even if not, I don't see how that should prevent him from getting a US passport. 5) According to US law, a US citizen includes: (g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-9696.html Based on Brian's quality reporting, it is likely his father meets the US residency requirement above. "Toljan's parents lived in the United States for a time but he was born in Stuttgart, Germany." http://www.americansoccernow.com/articles/jeremy-toljan-is-earning-minutes-at-hoffenheim This means his father likely lived for at least two years in the US after turning 14, if he was married in the US at a later reasonable age (e.g. 18 or older). See also: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartH-Chapter3.html#S-C If the parents were not married at time of birth (unclear), there are additional requirements that would make it difficult, but not impossible to obtain citizenship. See: https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-9774.html
I'm glad you have become an expert on citizenship and know this won't be hard.(I don't admit to being more more than a rank amateur). Money won't necessarily fix all the problems and there may be some issues that he can't overcome AND it's possible that he doesn't want to bother with. You aren't looking at the section for unwed father: Birth Abroad Out-of-Wedlock to a U.S. Citizen Father – “New” Section 309(a) A person born abroad out-of-wedlock to a U.S. citizen father may acquire U.S. citizenship under Section 301(c) or 301(g) of the INA, as made applicable by the “new” Section 309(a) of the INA if: A blood relationship between the person and the father is established by clear and convincing evidence; The father had the nationality of the United States at the time of the person’s birth; The father (unless deceased) has agreed in writing to provide financial support for the person until the person reaches the age of 18 years, and While the person is under the age of 18 years -- the person is legitimated under the law of his/her residence or domicile, the father acknowledges paternity of the person in writing under oath, or the paternity of the person is established by adjudication of a competent court. He will have to establish: 1) That he is blood related to this man who is dead. 2) The residency of his father in the US (he undoubtedly meets it, but you need a lot of personal information to track down the documents to prove it) 3) That his father has been identified as his father in the appropriate German documents (note that US law requires the home country to "legitimize" the birth He doesn't know his US family and there is no guarantee they will be easy to find or that they will be willing to cooperate. If for some reason his bio father isn't on any official German documents (there could be reasons why they didn't list him or bother to get it confirmed by the German courts), he may not be able to overcome that. It may be impossible to do (note, I didn't say it was "impossible" in my original post) if he wasn't "legitimized" or if his father has no living close relatives. Maybe all this stuff will be easy to put together, but I would bet against it. Ultimately, he has to WANT to do this and it doesn't appear he wants to, especially because Croatia is an easy 2nd option. As for the unmarried part, let's refer that to @bshredder: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/jeremy-toljan-at-borussia-dortmund.1860148/page-21#post-35904006 Given that his parents were not married and his father died a long time ago (even before he was born - thus not even being around to around at the time of the birth certificate). He doesn’t even know any of his American family either- at least not as of a few years ago.
I think this is a valid point. He needs to show us he is a first choice left back at some club and play week in and out before he should be in the reckoning for any call-up. What you're seeing here play out is the desperation of US fans for a legit left footed fullback. Outside of playing a three center back defensive formation with no left back, all we can muster is a right footer playing out of position. 350M+ citizens and not one GD left footed fullback.
I don't know if Toljian, at this point, would crack a 23 for the USMNT at RB. I don't know if he can play LB really. But he is young. However, we just saw Sargent and Weah be two of our best players in a lineup full of guys that play at "some club regularly". The backup striker at Barcelona that hasn't played in two years, leads the Bundesliga in goals having played less than a game's worth of minutes. The money in the game has the talent so concentrated that these fringe players at top clubs could very well be better than what else we have playing regularly. The 43rd player on every NFL roster could walk onto Alabama and be their best player. It is not that drastic in world football, but it is starting to resemble it.
Those are two pretty extreme cases of guys who US Soccer knows inside and out in terms of their footballing quality. Sarachan didn't need PSG and Werder to tell him how good those players are and why they are not starting for their club sides currently. Most guys who are called in are called because their club form dictates it, outside of the whole Bradley debacle.
Not sure where bshredder got that info, as it wasn't published in any official article. He's usually dependable though. I agree that of course Jeremy has to want citizenship in order for it to happen. If he doesn't want it, the whole thing is theoretical. But he will soon realize in the next year of so that he is not in the ballpark for the German national team. At that point, he will have to decide between Croatia or the US. And even if he prefers Croatia, he still might have a hard time making that team on a regular basis (outside of a few caps here or there). Even though his mother is Croatian, I wonder if he even speaks the language. I'm guessing his English is better than his Croatian, given what is taught in German schools. So our best best is that he ends up being not good enough for Germany or Croatia, but still good enough to be our starter. Unfortunately, there's enough daylight between our team and those two that there's a good shot of him falling in that range. At that point, throw the lawyers at the problem and it can be accomplished, provided he is willing to meet unknown family.
On the list of players that Dortmund want to dump in Winter. Not surprising and it's for the best. http://www.sportbuzzer.de/artikel/b...sak-rode-burnic-transfer-wechsel-ablose-zorc/
he never impressed for Dortmund that's his issue and hasn't played a competitive game for Dortmund since April 2018. And seems less and less likely to see the field for the rest of the year too. was really better off staying at Hoff. Sometimes players jump too quickly, only lasted there for 2 real seasons before jumping at the big club.
small point but while croatia has quite a few more players at champions league level clubs than the USMNT they also have a bunch of players at the brugge, anderlecht, hoffenheim eintracht rangers type of clubs too... the standard of good enough for germany and good enough for croatia are not the same. if youre not good enough for croatia, youre probably not good enough for USMNT whereas many players not good enough for germany are good enough for USMNT. big difference, imo. croatia and usmnt are roughly in the same ballpark for "good enough" i.e. you can play for a brugge for instance and still be on USMNT or Croatia whereas that aint happening in Germany.
I agree Germany is better than Croatia, but Croatia has better players 1-18 than the US does. Once you get into players 18-23 on a roster, some may be good enough for both US and Croatia, but not many. From the US team, only maybe Pulisic would challenge for a spot with the Croatia team. Not even Brooks, Chandler, or F. Johnson would be regulars for Croatia, let alone Michael Bradley. So they are far better than us currently on a position-by-position break down. Doesn't mean we can't compete with them if we're organized and play to maximum abilities, since soccer is a team game.
i disagree. i dont think croatia would have nearly as many players on the teams that they do if they didn't have EU-status....and that their seeming superiority re: usmnt is as a result of access to countries like spain and italy that refuse to allow americans to play. bottomline you can play for a rangers or a anderlecht and still be in the picture with croatia just like you would for the usmnt....so as it relates to toljan - that seems like the kinda club he might sign with if and when he leaves BVB - probably not an italian or spanish club.
just a quick reminder, Croatia's runner-up World Cup team had 5!! players on it that are better than anyone the United States has ever produced. *I didnt even count Goalkeepers or defenders. So, that's 5/12 midfielders and forwards that would be better than any American ever.
i disagree with that assessment...but it is irrelevant to this thread. the point is not are the cream of the crop croatians better than the cream of the crop usmnters. its what kind of option would croatia be for toljan and what kind of option would usmnt be for toljan..... and my point is just that BOTH COUNTRIES would be in play if toljan took a step or even two down the club ladder. (croatie recently called up a player from Rangers, mind you) so, in my opinion, if a country that calls up players from rangers deems you not good enough - well there is a good but not 100% chance you wouldnt be good enough for the USMNT as well - especially not to the point where you are going to file a one-time switch and go through all the hassle and then not even be a lock best 11 player for. yeah croatias players have better club situations than the usmnt but if you are not good enough to be on croatia....you arent likely a lock starter for the usmnt, either. which brings me back to the original point that i responded to that spurred this tangent....i dont think there is a "gap" where not good enough for croatia but worthwhile for toljan to file a one-time switch to usmnt - b/c a not good enough for croatia-left-back - will not be a guaranteed starter for usmnt even if croatia is "better" than usmnt.
Toljan has the tools to be a good Bundesliga fullback, despite being buried in the depth chart and currently carrying a knock. It stands to reason that he would make a good addition to the US pool if the passport situation can be cleared up, but the problem is that there is no national team coach to call him up.
Per my request, Hoffenheim's press department provided me with some family background on Toljan prior to my interview with him.
I think you are misreading the post. Brian was answering why he had some info that he didn't include in this previous interview with Toljan. I don't think there is any new info.