Saturday 17 May 2025

Club Atlético Aldosivi an Argentine club playing the Primera División ir the first division of Argentina.

Former Argentine national team striker Martín Palermo coached them from 2021–2022.

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...istan-blackmon-potential-national-team-switch

Jesse Marsch is trying to get Canadian citizenship for a Whitecap player. So far as I can tell, Tristan Blackmon has no ties to Canada except playing for the Caps. Am I wrong about that?

Anyway, this would be like the US capping, say, Luciano Acosta.

Posting it here because it’s an effect of MLS having teams in Canada.

 

Looking at his wiki , Tristan Blackmon has only been in Vancouver for three yesrs.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s fair that it takes players 5+ years to get their citizenship and play for the USA while other national teams hand out papers at will.

Why can’t the USA lineup some MLS foreign star players if that is the case?

I think FIFA should start changing their rules.

 

FIFA rules require a player obtaining a new nationality, without having a family connection, to have five years residence there before being eligible, even if the country will grant citizenship earlier than that.

 

I don't know if the rules have changed but I've seen many players play on World Cup teams and their only ties to the national teams were playing in the nations domestic clubs.

Argentines Mauro Camoranesi and Mateo Retegui had been granted Italian citizenship but they had great grandparents who were Italian and other than that, no other family ties.

Camoranesi played on Italy's 2006 WC tea but he was playing for Juventus at that time.

Retegui was eligible to play for Italy through descent, in February 2023 and selected by Roberto Mancini but I don't think he ever stepped foot in Italy at that point.

Italy has been choosing "Oriundi" since the 1930's.

 

Because sports aren’t important enough to carve out special immigration laws just for them.

If anyone is going to change this, it’s FIFA. And in fairness to it, they have tightened up this loophole somewhat. Otherwise Qatar would have fielded like 11 Argies and Brazilians in 2022.

 

Portugal has done the same thing with Brazilian players.

I've seen many other nations though, lineup foreign players in tournaments and many times, they don't have ties to the country other than playing for a club team.

It seems like US laws prevent players from obtaining qucker citizenship papers as opposed to other nations but I don't see how fair that is when it comes time for national team selection for a given Copa America , World or Concacaf Cup

 

A fair number of Italians immigrated to Argentina, among other South American Nations, towards the and after the end of World War II.

 

This is true.

Italians have been immigrating to Argentina since the late 1800's.

Most "Oriundi" who have been picked to play for Italy though, aren't really Italian with the exception of a great grand parent.

 

It is true, a lot of Italians immigrated to America some to South America and some to Noth America but when people said America they think is a country but actually is a continent and a lot of people don’t know that.

 

The US did it with Julian Gressel. No previous ties before joining the league, but he got his five years and obtained his citizenship and that was enough.

 

He actually played for Providence in the NCAA.

 

I don't know how it works now but I recall speaking with Preki when he first got called up and he was already in the US for years when he finally got his citizenship at age 33.

That was a different time and the national team didn't have much depth in those days.

Today though, if a foreign player starts his club career path in MLS at 18 , 19 or even 20 for example, 5 years isn't a long time but their time is short-lived if they have to wait the same amount of time starting at age 22, 23, or 24.

It doesn't seem fair when so many other nations line up foreign players and hand out papers at will or at least in a much easier way than the US does.

 

Per FIFA rules a player needs 5 years of continuous residency in a country to be eligible to represent that country. He can get Canadian citizenship earlier but won't meet FIFA requirements.

 

Have you considered that the US has a bigger player pool than others? Given its citizenship laws? Almost no other developed country grants citizenship to someone merely by place of birth (jus soli).

It’s how the USMNT got Musah and Balogun. Players with flimsy connections to the country at best with two foreign parents. Did either of them even live in the US for 5 years compared to the cases you are criticising?

I think the FIFA rules are mostly ok, and the notion of “fairness” is multifaceted when it comes to concept of citizenship.

 

But I don’t care about citizenship.

I’m mostly talking about how FIFA allows other nations to field these players and they give out citizenship papers freely so those players can be allowed to play on national teams.

If that is the case, that isn’t fair at all because they are only doing it so those players can play for them and appear in a given tournament.

Then I say rules should be changed and country should be allowed so all teams can be in the same boat and call up whomever they wish.

In other words calling up green card holders or US residents.

FIFA used to allow this so I am sure the rule can be changed again.

Also, the US may have a lot of players to choose from but they aren’t all that great.

I still keep coming back to Portugal fielding Brazilians and Italy picking Argentines freely or through ancestry but the US can’t do the same.

That doesn’t seem at all fair to me.

How new are these rules?

If that’s the case , how is Canada allowed to pick Blackmon who’s only been in Canada three years or Italy Retegui who was never a resident?

 

Well, it seems like you do.

Citizenship is the point of reference for national team representation (as it should).

As pointed out by others. FIFA requires 5 years consecutive residence for players that are not inherently eligible, either through jus soli (place of birth) or family ties.

This rule has been in place for many years now (decades?) and isn't that different from the US citizenship journey for someone "fresh off the boat" so to speak. Compare that to my country (Switzerland) which requires a minimum of 10 years residence and doesn't consider jus soli.

That is besides the point. Countries employing jus soli have a built-in advantage in player recruitment and representation. Here is a map. The concept seems to be mainly associated with the Americas: https://brilliantmaps.com/blood-jus-sanguinis-vs-land-jus-soli-based-rules-for-citizenship/

The point is you will never have a level playing field when it comes to citizenship and representation, and the US is "better off" when it comes to player recruitment compared to others. The FIFA 5-year rule is a reasonable compromise given wildly different citizenship standards.

 

Retegui probably has a parent or grandparent that has Italian citizenship. It's how he qualifies. Since he can get that citizenship he didn't have to be living in Italy to represent them. Think of it like Dest who has never lived here but has America citizenship via his father.

As for Blackmon, I have no idea. He won't be eligible to represent Canada based on FIFA rules. He can get his Canadian citizenship but needs the FIFA 5 year requirements. Eligible till 2027.

Not the exact same scenario but Lucho Acosta was on a path to represent USMNT. He messed it up by breaking his residency by joining Liga MX. He lost his 5 year residency required by FIFA and broke it too for his path to US citizenship.

 

These are all great points and I understand them but I still don't see the fairness and that is why I’m saying they should change the rules.

Retegui has a great grandparent I believe and that is how he was eligible to play for Italy.

Look, I'm Italian -American, even lived and worked in Italy and have dual citizenship as my parents were born there.

I'm thrilled that Retegui plays for Italy and is the Serie A's leader goal scorer.

He even scored a beautiful game winner off a shot that hit the right post yesterday for Atalanta against Genoa , his former club.

On the other hand, though, I still don't see how fair it is that Italy and Portugal can hand out citizenship or lineup Argentines and Brazilians respectively, on the basis of ancestry while in turn, teams like the US, can't do the same.

The initial idea that Jules Rimet had when he came up with the World Cup concept was to field an all-star team of domestic players from each nation.

That is virtually impossible today when you have a bunch of foreigners playing in each league.

Heck Serie A clubs have few Italian born players per club.

It is no wonder why Italy missed out on both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The only reason they won the Euro in 2021 was because of two old war horse defenders in Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci and that was a sort of miracle.

The USA and/or MLS is in the same boat and they also missed out on the 2018 WC.

Anyway, my main point is, sooner or later, top country's will not even be able field national teams because they can't field or find enough players playing top tier football.

How can you field a national team of domestic players when your top or even bottom teams are aligned with a bunch of foreigners?

Therefore, if that is the case, I'm betting FIFA will change their rules yet again some time in future.

Maybe not now or in time for the 2026 WC but it will happen eventually otherwise, we can easily see the tournament suffering.

 

As an Italian-American, now put on your Italian hat for a moment and try to see the other side. Italy does not use the concept of jus soli. Being born on Italian soil alone isn't enough. How is it fair that that the US has access to players that were born without a single American parent and barely lived in the country? How does that contribute to the "national identity" of the team? Which is more unfair, lax ancestry rules extending to a grandparent or lax birthright rules linked to location and timing?

Now if you say Nico, how about we apply the 5 year rule to everyone you would have my immediate support. My country has some of the strictest citizenship rules in the world and we barely ever get to unearth a "gem" abroad. That's just how it is. If you crack down on ancestry you have to crack down on jus soli. That would include the likes of Musah, Balogun and Dest, who would have to play 5 years in MLS (not in Canada) before becoming eligible.

But policing residence requirements for every single player in a FIFA sanctioned match sounds like a bit of a nightmare. How many residence certificate fraud cases would surface?

 

FIFA is already analyzing, scrutinizing or approving which players can or can't play for a given national team.

Depending on your interpretation of the rules, there is or could be several violations and fraud in the case of some of these players that are allowed to play for a nation.

Italy started picking Argentines in the 1930's.

Lusito Monti played in the World Cup final in 1930 for Argentina and won the 1934 WC trophy for Italy on home soil.

That was not fair because he played in two consecutive WC Finals for two different nations.

The USMNT have picked many German Americans where their mothers had affairs or were married with US soldiers living on US Army bases in Germany.

I.E. Thomas Dooely and Jermaine Jones.

Jones even had 3 caps full Germany national team caps and that was unheard of previously.

The main difference with the Argentines and Brazilians though is that those players are much better than their German American counterparts.

Either way, both sets of rules are and still seem highly unfair and that is why I’m saying or advocating that the rules be changed.

Even by FIFA’s standards of Fair play that they highly preach, neither system is or seems fair.

Mostly because those same countries are signing up a bunch of ringers.

They've changed the rules before and to believe or think that FIFA won't change them again, is highly naive.

Maybe not by 2026 or even 2030 but it's inevitable that the rules will not be altered once again some day soon and I'm almost sure it will happen.

 

If that’s the rule, everyone in USA qualifies to play for their respective country of origin, except the natives Americans, USA is built by immigrants.