Alexis Norambuena for one, is supposed to have maternal grandparents from Palestine. https://fr.sports.yahoo.com/news/alexis-norambuena-citoyen-monde-090000481--sow.html Sorry ref is in French.
Maybe not: http://footballchannel.asia/2015/10/03/post7106/ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/s...r-soccer-improve-so-much-brazilians.html?_r=2 While clubs like Manchester United and Real Madrid can use players from around the world, national teams — those that compete in the World Cup — are limited to native players, or players who qualify as citizens because of a direct link to the country. East Timor has seemingly ignored this distinction. Fabiano, 28, said he had made the switch to East Timor “two or three years ago,” which if true would be a clear violation of FIFA citizenship rules since he had not lived in the country for five years. Asked if he or any of his Brazilian teammates qualified because they had Timorese heritage, Fabiano said: “I didn’t check. So I don’t know about that.”
They haved! http://footballpalestine.blogspot.com/2015/10/group-descending-into-administrative.html Palestine themselves are looking for their 1-1 result against Timor Leste to be invalidated after it became clear that the Timorean team fielded seven Brazilians with no ostensible connection to the country. Should FIFA rule in favor of Palestine- Timor Leste could see all their results reversed leaving them with zero as opposed to two points in Group A. The most mysterious team in Asia is embroiled in more controversy as they seem to have agreed to give up their home game vs. Saudi Arabia with an eye on reducing costs and travel time. No word yet on the final venue.
Doesn't sound like Palestine followed the proper process though. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/sports/soccer/palestine-protests-east-timors-use-of-brazilian-players.html?_r=0
Australia Henrique (Brazil)- not capped yet Reinaldo Mineiro (Brazil)- not capped yet Bahrain Jaycee John (Nigeria) Brunei Christopher Ambon (Cameroon) Iran Edinho (Brazil)- not capped yet Japan Marcus Tulio (Brazil) Noguchi Pinto (Brazil)- not capped yet Kyrgysztan Claude Ernest Desire Kum Maka (Cameroon) Elijah Ari (Ghana) Daniel Tagoe (Ghana) David Tetteh (Ghana) Lebanon Luis Fernandez (Brazil) Gilberto (Brazil) Marcilio (Brazil) Jadir Morgenstern (Brazil) Newton (Brazil) Taiwan/Chinese Taipei Onur Dogan (Turkey) Edit to Fabio Lima: According to English Wikipedia he was born in Tashkent...
QATAR nauralized players not mentioned yet Capped Amine Lecomte (Morocco/France) Tresor Kangambu/Mohammed Tresor Abdullah (after naturalization) (DR Congo) Karim Boudiaf (Algeria) Luiz Junior (Brazil) Mohammed Muntari (Ghana) Mohammed Razak (Ghana) Hussain Shehab (Iraq) Lawrence Quaye/Anas Mubarak (Ghana) Magid Mohammed (Sudan) Abdurahman Abubakar (Saudi Arabia) Abdulgadir Ilyas Bakur (Saudi Arabia) Dame Traore (France/Guinea) Adel Lamy (Kuwait) Boualem Khoukhi (Algeria) Yusef Ahmed Ali (Somalia) Mosaab Mahmoud (Sudan) Mohammed Kasola (Ghana) Ali Assadalla (Bahrain) Baba Malick (Senegal) Not Capped yet Wanderley (Brazil) Rodrigo Tabata (Brazil) Wagner (Brazil) Nathan Otavio (Brazil) Ivan Rodrigues (Brazil) Ahmed Ali Hatemi (Bahrain) Sergine Abdou (Senegal) If you now think Qatar are the World Champions in naturalizing players, you're wrong. Equatorial Guinea (an african country, i know ) tops everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_naturalised_Equatoguinean_international_football_players
are you joking? he is top goalscorer now in QSL with 20 goals, despite his age he can really strengthen the team in the third round
Different topic... Does anybody know why brazilian striker Jonatas holds Syrian nationality? He never played at Syrian clubs. http://www.kleague.com/eng/sub.asp?...00&LeagueId=2&PlayerId=20150200#player_detail
E-Land have also been pretty sharp in finding a Syrian granny for Belluso which means that he will fill the Asian quota for the 2016 season and leaving an additional foreigner slot free. http://www.kleagueunited.com/2016/02/seoul-e-land-pre-season-update.html
The other gulf nations (except qatar) also have a few naturalized players: Bahrain I already mentioned Jaycee John (Nigeria) above. Now i want to add more: Abdulla Baba Fatadi (Nigeria) Faouzi Aaish (Morocco) Abdulla Omar (Chad) Kuwait Brahima Keita (Ivory Coast) UAE Ibrahim Diaky (Ivory Coast)
Tim Cahill is 36, but was given his first cap 12 years ago (has 89 caps). In regards to the Qatar cap (and Cahill for that matter), if you are good enough you are "young" enough. In qualifiers player selection should largely be on merit!
As far as i know, there are 3 Brazilians (Eder, Jucilei & Mauricio Ramos) who were granted palestinian citizenship by their clubs in different parts of asia. The 3 don't seem to be of palestinian heritage. How is this possible?