With European teams now fielding so many naturalized citizens courtesy of their domestic leagues, including notables Marcus Senna, Mehmet Aurelio, and Eduardo da Silva, I got to thinking about possible candidates from MLS. The ideal candidates would be: 1) From a country with a huge player pool (Brazil and Argentina are the obvious ones), so that some very good players never got a chance with their youth or senior national teams. Players that could have been very useful (Shalrie Joseph comes to mind) that are from small or minnow countries are harder to get b/c they are likely among the best players from that country. Age is factor here as well, as the player can't be too far over the hill. AND/OR 2) Attended college here in the US so that they have a head start on the residency requirement for citizenship. Marrying an American girl would also be helpful. With that in mind, I thought of some possible future candidates. The most likely would be Bakary Soumare (Mali), as he has expressed interest in gaining citizenship, went to high school and one year of college here, and may be persuaded that the US offers him a better option for international play than Mali. He's improved tremendously this year and plays CB, a position where we could always use some new talent. Patrick Nyarko might be another possibility in the future should he come good for the Fire (three years US college), as Ghana has a lot of European based talent that would be ahead of him for future caps. DC United has two players that would fit the bill were it not for their age and relatively brief time in the league: Luciano Emilio and Fred. Both are Brazilian, talented attacking threats, and could get some caps for us. They are maybe a bit too old, however, as Fred is 28 and Emilio 29. Other players that might fit the bill and are worth watching: Andy Iro-Crew (CB-England and attended US college) Adam Moffet-Crew (MF-Scotland, 22 yrs old) Carlos Marinelli-Wizards (MF-Argentina, 26 years old). He may well have some youth caps, however. Sinisa Ubiparipovic-Red Bulls (MF-Bosnia, 24, 4 yrs US college) (I believe Borman and Richards are out b/c of youth or senior caps already with SA and Jamaica) Francisco Mendoza-Chivas USA (MF-Mexico, 23) Kosuke Kimura-Rapids (D-Japan, 24, US college) Tom McManus-Rapids (F-Scotland, 27) He just came this year, is a bit of a journeyman, so this would be a long shot. Medhi Ballouchy-Rapids (MF-Morocco, US college, 25) If he ever actually comes good... Facundo Erpen-Rapids (D-Argentina, 25). Not sure about him, as a DC United fan; made a few too many errors back in the day. Richardinho, Rocha, and Saragosa-FC Dallas (Brazil) All Brazilian, but none of them are national team quality as of yet. Dominic Oduru FC Dallas (F-Ghana, US college). Shows flashes of ability, but seems too streaky. Alvaro Peres-Galaxy (MF, Brazil, 23) Not really that impressive, but he is relatively young and Brazilian. Javier Morales, Fabian Espindola-Real Salt Lake (Argentina) Espindola is younger, but Morales (28) has been very good this year. Feel free to add some if I left off other candidates. I would say Iro, Soumare, and possibly Morales and Fred would be the best candidates. Guys like Nyarko, Sinisa, and Oduru are worth keeping an eye on as well--one of them could pull a Buddle and come good.
How old is Sebastian Le Toux? In an interview, he expressed interest in becoming a citizen and playing for the US; sounds genuine seeing as he also said in the same intervew that he was not even rooting for France at Euro 2008! But the difficulty for us is the long time involved. Dema Kovalenko started the whole process of going for citizenship while he was in high school (in Rochester, NY or thereabouts), and he was finally sworn in this year, at age 30. Likewise, if you look at our other naturalized players other than Regis: Preki came to the US at age 20, and was well into his 30s when he became a US citizen; and Llamosa made his national team debut at 28, shortly after becoming a citizen, after immigrating at 18.
Has to be someone young, who lived for years in US, and some love for US. Emilio is better off playing for Honduras.
I'd like to add Franco Caraccio to that list. He's pretty young (21) and obviously is a long shot to play for Argentina.
Pretty sure he played for Argentina at the U-20 world cup so the only way this is possible is if he miraculously gains citizenship before turning 21.(not sure on his age)
Nevermind, I was hoping Gonzalo Martinez was a possibility, but I was clearly wrong. 36 caps for Colombia.
Immigration laws have changed dramatically since 9/11, so attending college in the US doesn't put one at the front of the line. I can't think of any recent player who took that route to play on the USMNT.
Immigration laws are not the same as citizenship laws. Those requirements have been fairly unchanged, even after 9-11. If you have lived here throughout high school and into college (Dema Kovalenko was mentioned before), those all count as citizenship years. Remember as well that we still have a fairly young league. Just b/c it has not happened before does not mean it won't in the future.
I really hope that we've progressed past the point that we need to take this approach. There is little satisfaction in using naturalized players to become competitive
If my understanding of recent events is correct, in some States the players could now also marry an American boy. Not sure if that would help with US citizenship, however, and it might be a difficult sell to these guys, so ... Just forget I said anything.
Bakary Soumare is the only foreign player close to being good enough for our Nats with a chance at citizenship right now.
To apply for US citizenship the applicant has to have been a lawful permanent resident for 5 years (3 years if he's married to a US citizen). That is the only way a non-US citizen can become a citizen if citizenship is not acquired at birth. Time spent in the US going to school (or doing anything else) doesn't count unless the student is already a lawful permanent resident at that time (i.e., not simply a student visa holder).
I too, hope we are now passed the stage of trying to hire national team players who have spent the majority of their lives in (fill in whatever country). Why don't we look at what US players could help our national team.
I guess Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Croatia, and Switzerland haven't "advanced" past naturalizing players since they all have players on their current national teams that fit that bill. Apart from Switzerland, all of those countries have superior national teams to our own at the moment. That would include two of the final four in the Euros, but who is counting? I'm not suggesting we make a whole team of these players or that we return to the days of David Regis, just that MLS offers the possibility of adding a player or two to the mix that would not have been their otherwise.
Unless our country's citizenship laws change, it really doesn't. You're talking about at least 10 years from the time the guy gets here until the time he can actually play for us. It doesn't take nearly as long elsewhere. A situation like Regis is one of the few ways to speed the process up. I have no opinion as to whether this is good or bad, it just is at the moment until we decide to try and look up that exemption the ice dancers got.
Apparently Congress passed a special law to let the ice dancer (Belbin) get citizenship quickly. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/winter/2006-01-04-notes-belbin_x.htm
Right, and I don't know why such a law wouldn't be available to a soccer player, but then that's assuming laws are applied equally. The reality of course is that the law was all about political pressure to begin with and will be again when someone else tries it.
Sounds like it could be done quite easily. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] http://www.insvisa.com/non-immigrant/o-1_visa.htm [/FONT]
If someone is born elsewhere but became a US citizen and wants to play for us, then that's great. Guys like Ramos and Adu have been very valuable. But when we start running around looking to find people who will play for us, we look like fools and we usually don't end up with much. Forget Regis, any of you who were fans during the 90's remember Wagner and Mason? While the US shouldn't have a goal to naturalize players, it certainly should have goal to prevent losing players who were born here or who have lived here for a long time. This is going to be a growning issue especially with the hispanic (mostly Mexican) population booming in the US. And then you have the chance of losing a prospect like Subotic. That would be a real shame given that the US did spend time and money working with him in their youth system.
This is how Einstein was granted citizenship. The USA naturalizes nearly 500,000 citizens each year. The odds are that some of them play soccer.