Recently, one of the soccer podcasts mentioned that Dom Dwyer might be interested in joining the USMNT once he gets citizenship. It dawned on me that we should capture information on players like Dwyer, who already have Green Cards and who haven't been capped at a youth level in a competition that would preclude any national team switch under current rules. That's what this thread provides – a place to capture and discuss those whom USSF might be interested in if the timing works out right and to get a sense for how close the players might be to US citizenship. It will also be a place to get easy access to the rules on both Green Card > Citizenship and FIFA rules on gaining an additional nationality. Green Cards: Once an individual has a Green Card, there are two clocks that start ticking and that must be met by the time the player applies for citizenship. 1) Residency. This doesn't mean what you think it means. In this context, residency means that you have established the US as your home and plan to return to the US even if you spend time with a team overseas. You do this by keeping a home here, by filing US tax returns, by keeping a US driver's license and/or by keeping US bank accounts. It's a loose standard, but the GC holder has to prove he plans on staying in the US. For most individuals, you need 5 years of residency (3 if you marry a US citizen). 2) Physical presence. Actual time physically in the US. You need 2.5 years of physical presence within your 5 years of residency (1.5 years if you marry a US citizen). This can be broken up and every day in the US, even if on vacation or playing in the US for a Canadian MLS team, counts. FIFA rules: 7 Acquisition of a new nationality Any Player who refers to art. 5 par. 1 to assume a new nationality and who has not played international football in accordance with art. 5 par. 2 shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions: a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association. The last bullet is the most important. FIFA has generally interpreted the “living” part as being tied to one's team. Not sure how loans play into that, but it's usually best not to go on loan outside the country. And a player can't have played a competitive youth match for another federation prior to obtaining US citizenship. Competitive matches include FIFA-sanctioned tournaments such as U20 World Cup or the Olympics. Friendlies at youth or full national team level don't count.
Ideally, the targets fall into two camps – those from competitive federations, where the player is unlikely to ever break in, and those from countries where the federation really isn't competitive compared to the US. The second category may be the more dangerous – they can offer caps for players who think they might never get into the US set-up because of the competition or the time to get citizenship is too long. Here are some target players. Feel free to add more. A couple may be too old by the time they get there, but it's good to have the info in one place. Player| Date Green Card |Date Earliest Citizenship | Age at Citizenship | In US Since Dom Dwyer (England) ~Feb. 2012 ~Feb. 2017 (26) 2009 Darlington Nagbe (Liberia) Dec. 2012 Dec. 2015 (25) 2001 Diego Fagundez (Uruguay) Oct. 2013 Oct. 2018 (23) 2000 Kekuta Manneh (Gambia) NLT Jan. 2013 NLT Jan. 2018 (24) 2010* Sebastien Le Toux (France) Aug. 2010 Aug. 2015 (31) 2007** Aurélien Collin (France) Sept. 2012 Sept. 2017 (31) 2011 Footnotes: NLT = No Later Than * Manneh was adopted by his American host family, but was too old to receive immediate citizenship. He has been playing in Vancouver since 2013, so it's likely he has broken his consecutive residency for FIFA purposes. ** Le Toux was also in Vancouver for 6 months in 2012, so that probably broke his 5 year run for FIFA purposes. If so, he wouldn't have FIFA eligibility until July 2017. Any additions?
Gedion Zelalem has probably requested citizenship. It's likely that his visit earlier this year was for the biometrics and background check or the interview. If so, his citizenship should be processed sometime this year.
In the long-shot department, you could add Osvaldo Alonso. He's a citizen now, but unless Cuba feels like giving him up, he's pretty much stuck in limbo. http://www.mlssoccer.com/worldcup/2...hing-osvaldo-alonsos-dream-representing-usmnt
He could be. There's even a community called Point Roberts that is at the tip of a peninsula attached to Canada. He could live there, but it's a small place and he may not really be worrying about the path to US citizenship.
Even that's not necessary. Downtown Vancouver is less than an hour from Blaine right there on the border.
Hmm, this would really be something since, as @Sandon Mibut has done such a good job illustrating, "no players who came to the US to play college soccer have gone on to get naturalized and play for the US since the early 80s." http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/zakuani-i-prefer-the-usa.1813329/page-2#post-24275379
I guess Steve Zakuani should join the queue, despite his friendly cap with DR Congo. Green Card received: Dec. 2010 Citizenship target date: Dec. 2015 In the US since: 2007 Age at citizenship: 27
I think the reason we are seeing some college-educated players is the maturation of MLS and its willingness (and aggressiveness) to sponsor Green Cards. Sandon mentions in the referred thread that naturalization takes longer now. It really doesn't, but it does take longer to get a Green Card which is the biggest obstacle for most players to gaining citizenship.
If Collin were 4 years younger that development would excite me. I hope Manneh has been living in one of the border towns in the U.S. because he could be a real stud, who wants to be creepy and try to confirm on twitter or wherever? Dwyer could be interesting but he'll need to keep his form to get consideration..which is asking a lot, but who knows.
A few years ago there was a thread set up like this for Danny Mwanga, when he was hot, I haven't heard much about him since. You just never know where the MLS dual nationals end up, its a long progress to get the citizenship and they have to keep that form up and even keeping improving during all that time, its a lot to ask for. Where someone who is immediately eligible for the team gets the benefit of being called up to January camps etc.
Oduro only has one friendly cap with Ghana. He should be eligible soon but I can't find when he got his green card. It was reported in Mar 2011 so should be eligible soon. Can't find info on when Sebastian Rincon got his green card. It was reported in 2012 but no info on when. Besides those two I think that's about it.
I think we can just presuppose it's true. His green card frees up a foreign slot for Vancouver (I know, I know, doesn't make sense) so I'm sure that they've insisted on that.
Heads would explode if Oduro ever played for the U.S., especially in Houston where he gets scapegoated for damn near everything that happened when he was there.
Except, he doesn't have to live in the US to keep his Green Card (just keep residency as defined above).
Don't you have to have been eligible for the other country (USA in this case) at the time you made your appearance for the other country in order to maintain the ability to switch?
Friendlies at either level don't count. Only a "competitive match" counts. For example, Zedion Gelalem would have been immediately disqualified for US consideration once he started playing friendlies in the German youth system if that were the case.
Things are tighter lately. My mother-in-law was lectured about not being enough time in the states just last year.