In 1998, Jamaica qualified for their first WC ever, and the team that played in the finals was almost unrecognizable from the team that played in the qualifiers. The reason for this was that as soon as they were assured of the spot, hordes of English-based players suddenly remembered that they have Jamaican parents or grandparents. Until 1996, no English-born player represented Jamaica, thought plenty like Paul Ince or Viv Anderson were eligible, but in the last 10 years, some 25-30 players opted to play for them. So, my question is, who thinks that in the next 6 months, Portuguese and French players will suddenly discover they have parents from Cote D'Ivoire, Angola or Togo? Also, what are some likely candidates for this? I'm thinking that Nando kid who wanted to play for Holland but was never called up.
Nando Rafael plays for Germany's U21 and has decent chances to be called up for the Senior team given a couple years. He shows no interest in playing for Angola, but probably would opt for the Dutch if they want him ( and Germany didn't cap him by then ).
Isn't the current rule that once you play for a national side, you're locked into playing for that nation for the rest of your career? The teams you mentioned will get 3 games, and get smacked 5-0 in each one. Is it worth sacrificing a potential spot in the french/english team for those games? probably not. Having said that, I suppose if the players don't have the quality to reach the english / french national teams, then why not, as long as they understand the consequences.
Once you played for a Senior national side you are stuck with that country. Youth tournaments don't count.
They have a new rule where one can switch national team if he is the citizen of the NT before he is 18 or younger. I am unsure whether this applied to players who only played for youth team or to senior level as well.
This is inexact. There were six english born players on the Jamaica 98 WC team Deon Burton,Paul Hall, Fitzroy Simpson and Robbie Earle, Frank Sinclair and Darryl Powell. The first four all played in the hex (final qualifying round) while the other two were called up afterwards for the Gold Cup and pre WC friendlies respectively before being put unto the WC team... Burton actually scored something like 4 goals in the last 5 games or so and cannot be considered as any kind of bandwagonnist but one of the key reasons why they GOT to the WC, seeing that they didn't score any goals in their first 3 matches of the hex
Not quite. If you've played for a team on youth level, you can switch allegiances provided that you do so before your 21st birthday (assuming you're eligible for citizenship in the new country)
There you go, you hit the nail on the head yourself. Not one of these players played for Jamaica until they made it to the final group of 6 teams. I'm not comparing the 1998 team with the one that played the clinching game in the qualifiers, I'm comparing it to the one that started the qualifiers in 1996.
I was reacting to your statement about hordes of players remembeing their ancestry once the qualifying spot was SECURED (which if my memory serves me right wasn't until the last day against mexico). You're right if you compare them to the team as early as 1996, but you have to put this into the general context of Caribbean qualifying. The Caribbean powerhouses like Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, usually have 2 home and away ties (4 matches) with minnow to highly borderline (by concacaf standards) teams. Then they have 6 matches in the semifinal round that would include two each against one strong team (lets , one team of about more or less equal strength according to the draw and one marginal team. Finally, in the hex, they'd meet 2 teams definitely stronger than them and 3 about 2 on the same level and one marginally weaker. If you followed Caribbean football (and i suspect its similar for central american football) club vs country conflicts run rife for the foreign based professionals, and its usually standard procedure to leave out most of the foreign based professionals for at least the first 4 matches, and even the semi final run depending on the draw to have more bargaining power for the most important matches. The fact of the matter is while the scouting may have been going on for ages, Jamaica didn't really need the reinforcements until the hex anyway. In Trinidad's case this quali cycle, there were very few of the foreign based pros that played at these stages of the tourney and those that did were mostly benching for their clubs. You'd note that on FIFA's website, a guy named Mcfarlane is our second best scorer and he hasn't even BEEN on the team since the hex started. Of course the unretirement of certain players doesn't help the cause of the forgotten soldiers That said, the longer the qualifying process is, the easier it is for new players to be drafted into the squad, (which will explain why european squads are so invariable)
I apologize, I realize I did write it that way. Either way, what I meant was that not one of the Robbie Earle, Deon Burton, Frank Sinclair variety of players bothered to fly out for the games against minnows, but they all jumped on the chance to play once Jamaica progressed. I have nothing against teams drafting in foreign-born players whose ancestry goes back to said countries, just like I have nothing against those players playing, but it bothers me how they all turn into instant patriots overnight. It's common knowledge that both Robbie Earle and Shaka Hislop were one injury to a starter away from playing for England and that they took a decade each to play for Jamaica and T&T respectively. Even worse is the case of one Barrington "Barry" Hayles who at one point even accepted to play for Caymans in their "lets see how much abuse of the rules FIFA puts up with" fiasco, only to turn out for Jamaica a year later. Ditto David Johnson, who at different points almost played for all 4 Home Nations, AFTER playing for Jamaica in a couple of friendlies. And I wanna reiterrate that my beef is not with NTs, but some of the players.
Yeah right. I can see Trinidad getting a ton of new players between now and June, they're already trying to.
David Johnson was never close to playing for the full England side. Can you also explain when Shaka Hislop was an injury away from playing given that at the time he was at his peak we had Seaman, Martyn etc?
I am wondering why Jamaica is no longer recruiting foreign-born players anymore. After they qualified once in 1998, many oversea Jamaicans might consider the option, but it had not happened.
Well probably has something to with the fact you had Seaman (can you say lob anyone Martyn (anyone knows who he is? ) and etc (who don't even deserve to have their name mentioned... )
I'm not sure that they aren't but if they're not it probably has something to do with different philosophies of the coaches that have succeeded Simmoes...
That is true.The Italian star Christian Vieri and his brother Max were both born in Australia but went to live in Italy as teenagers.Christian obviously plays for Italy but Max was convinced to play for Australia since being offered a full contract,and now over that age,will play for Australia if he intends to play international football. (Although was left out of the squad for the Sydney clash with Uruguay due to injury).
Why be silly and assume noticeable black person in england orginates from jamaica? im born in the UK and this is what annoys me in england. Paul Ince's parents are actually from Trinidad & Barbados And dont say things like ''hordes of English-based players suddenly remembered that they have Jamaican parents or grandparents'' because its not like that at all. As if they dont appeciate having orgins in Jamaica. Most black people in the UK are proud of their African or Caribbean Heritage and acknowledge it very well. Pack you suit cases and come and see notting hill carnival. people born here a large group have their country of orgin plastered all over their car.
If you watched the JA Game vs the aussies, I wouldnt blame you for coming to that conclusion. I have a friend who was called up for JA under 21s(He concentrating on his Domestic Club at the mo but said he will play for JA,Hes born in england btw) and his dad is good friends with the JA coach. The reason why the coach played mostly JA Based or a couple of US based players is because he wants to set up a based in England this makes sense because there is a big JA community here and lot of British-Jamaican boys are mostly likely to play football if they choose a career in sport, unlike the US. Basically he was doing a shop window(which went wrong sadly with the 5-0 licks they recieved) Also alot of the players available to ja UK born at the moment are just as good as the JA born players so there is no point of calling them up.