Despite the fact that he seems to have a much less tenuous connection to his American side than most of the other German dual-nats, he still grew up in Germany with his German mother and all the other Germans in Germany. Side note: Gosh, the more times I write "German" the more I see the word "Nazi". Not my intended effect, if you have the same reaction.
His mom played for the German national basketball team His step-father played for the German national handball team
So, flip the script on him (i.e. if he grew up here, had US mom and step dad etc) and we'd be livid he'd even be considering Germany! It just makes sense that Germany might be his #1 preference and the USA is a nice back-up. If he's good enough for Germany, I'm pretty sure he'll end up playing for them.
It's the Dest situation... He was identified by the US youth program before his native country and was very successful in the US youth program. He shows so much potential in his first full year as a pro that his native country realizes they don't want him to get locked into the US' program. However, they can't offer him the same opportunities that the US can in the short term. The US has more to offer at this stage and was the program that identified him and gave him the first opportunity. Hopefully, like with Dest, those factors keep him with us. If he really wants to play for Germany, there is a good chance he's got the quality to break into that squad over the next few years.
We will all have to wait and see. Coin flip. 50 / 50 he gets called in. If he does will he accept? I would guess yes as he only gets locked in if he plays in an official game. The sales pitch is come to camp again, impress and get minutes or even start. Then you can decide if you'd like to be on the WC team. I know Poch wants committed players but I also have observed almost every coach thinks they are the one who can convince, change a team's fortune, find solutions. I'm sure the top coaches need this confidence. I also think if he gets called in plays great and is named to the WC squad he would accept after enjoying this window.
This base would be super easy for Poch and Banks to cover with a five minute phone call. Basically, if Banks accepts a call up at this point, he's 100% committed to the US.
It is a pretty stark contract from when I interviewed him 1v1 in September. I asked him point blank about playing for Germany and he said once he started playing for the USA, he didn't even think about playing for Germany. Not sure if it is his family, agent, club teammates & coaches, friends who got into his ear or whether this is all his own doing. One thing I am sure about is that it wasn't smart to talk about this topic publicly. There is nothing for him to gain in doing so, but there is A LOT to lose. He's not going to get Germany's attention by saying this.. he's a German teenager starting in the Bundesliga. They know about him. Meanwhile, it's only going to make Poch angry or question his commitment to the team. If he turns down the U.S. team for the World Cup, I would hope that U.S. Soccer walks away from him at that point. Turning down your team at its most important stage and then later wanting to come back should be a big no-no. That said, I think he gets called up in March and would ultimately accept a World Cup invite.
Well one thing that's changed since September is his club status. If I'm looking at the stats correctly, Banks only had two starts and roughly 300 minutes total in his entire professional career at the time of that September callup. Since then he's become essentially an every-game starter on a midtable Bundesliga side. A teenage CB starting regularly in the Bundesliga will probably attract a lot more interest from the Germany national team than a player with Banks' resume back in September. It's possible he's had much more serious conversations from German national team coaches, including possibly Nagelsmann himself, since then. Probably also worth noting that most of the German national team CBs are 30+ right now, or will be by this summer.
Not really relevant to this forum as he's a YA regardless, so encourage people to continue this discussion in the USA forums. That said, it's pretty fresh news and probably not worth trying to quash by mods. For me, losing Rossi and Subotik seemed like much bigger deals than it turned out to be. I tend to agree with Arena that we want people that are really committed to the team and not picking for career reasons or other reasons. If he's not fully committed to the team - he won't help us that much.
Subotic never really amounted to much on the international stage. He was a flake for Serbia. He was just a great club player but I think he would have been a flake for the USMNT too. He's a weird guy. In post retirement interviews, he says he doesn't even watch football/soccer. The international game never seemed to motivate him. Rossi could have been a much bigger loss but his injuries would have limited his time with the USMNT at the worst possible times. I've been saying this, but the "biggest losses" are going to be the American born/raised kids who come up through MLS. While U.S. Soccer was chasing Uly Llanez and Konrad de la Fuente, far superior players like Obed Vargas and Esmir Bajraktarevic went elsewhere. But losing Obed, Araujo, and Esmir shouldn't bother U.S fans. Those kids are playing where they want. What SHOULD bother fans is when USMNT coaches gives caps to players who have no business playing for the team just in an effort to convince them to play for the USMNT. Giving fifa-date caps to Llanez, Soto, de la Fuente (in a qualifier!), and several others was embarrassing and it rubbed other players the wrong way - players who were pushing for call-ups but who didn't have dual nationality as leverage I've alluded to this, but Aidan Morris was the best American dual national I've ever seen handle this. He was pushing for a USMNT call-up, Canada approached him, he listened but quickly shot them down. The process did not drag on and on like it did with Suboitc, Chandler, Rossi, and many, many others. Morris only wanted to play for the USMNT, even if it was a harder path. He would likely be a starter for Canada at the World Cup if he went with them. That alone should have made Morris a fan favorite with USMNT fans. It didn't get a lot of attention because Morris was with the Crew at the time, but he was always a good player and he sacrificed a lot to choose the USMNT
In my previous post, I overlooked (forgot) the fact that Banks has played at multiple US Youth teams. That does cloud the issue a bit and maybe it isn’t so cut and dry. But, yeah, he has kind of broken through in the Bundesliga since early last fall and it is highly likely the DFB has been in contact with him a lot. Plus, @bshredder Noahkai may have been sympathetic to yiu and looking to say what he thought were ‘the right things’ to you as an American reporter (I’m assuming you’re American? I guess I shouldn’t assume…). At any rate, he is a teenager…opinions can change fast I suppose. Especially if the almighty DFB comes calling
I wouldn't fault the guy if he chose Germany. He's very much German even if he's got a US passport and has played for USYNTs. He'd have a much better shot at winning a WC if he chose Germany--assuming he'll ever be good enough to break into their squad. It's gotta be a very tough choice to make.
Some pundits are saying Karim Coulibaly is a much better player than Banks. Breman want 40 million for a transfer for him this summer and he will get a call up to DFB for this World Cup. Transfermarkt values him at 20 million and Banks at 15.
This has been happening more often of late. Julian Araujo played a ton of minutes across most USYNTs... only to bail to Mexico at the last minute. Vargas just pulled the same ****. As did Esmir. In many cases the country they defected to didn't give them YNT opportunities... The US did. Where is the loyalty?
They are just using the USA program to boost their careers, only to bail when time comes. I wouldn't trust any of the Bosnian boys. That boy Jakupovic is going to do the exact same thing Esmir did if given the chance. He's got Bosnian flag emojis all over his Social Media accounts from what I hear.
It's understandable to feel bitter, but if US soccer doesn't give the best players a shot then they'll definitely choose to play for someone else.