I was just browsing Wikipedia and found that Winston Reid has been called up by Denmark Under-19's after he gained citizenship. A big loss to New Zealand or not? http://www.dbu.dk/lbase/playerInfo.aspx?playerid=5474&teamtypeid=2164#match
Well it is up to him to apply before 3rd July 2009 (his 21st Birthday) to change his nationalities if he wants a shot at the All Whites. Although he has got a Danish Citizenship, he should also still be able to keep his NZ Citizenship as well, ie he has Dual Citizenships. Honestly it depends what he wants. In any case, it is a good idea to gain some international youth experience while he can and make a change before his 21st birthday. Not many, if any, youth internationals in European teams are able to get in their national team.However weak football nation or a small league championship, then it would be about 20-50% of the NT members were ex-youth internationals. Still more youth players don't get to play for NT. It depends if Winston understands where he is in terms of his abilitiies in comparsion to others of his age and the national team members. I could only hope that Ricki Herbert takes a close look and talk to Winston Reid and have open communication going.
Tommy Smith, currently playing with the academy squad at Ipswich Town, has also just been capped by England at Under-17 level. Tommy is different in that he was born in England to English parents, but was brought up in New Zealand and played for the NZ Schools rep side. In this case, I can understand the decision, but Reid isn't even Danish as such, therefore it just seems a bit of a farce when a player can pick and choose between countries, IMHO.
sorry if it breaches forum ettiquette, but piss off. Reid has been playing for the country he has been living in, and the country of his step-father, and has been playing for them passionately and well. New Zealand lost to Vanuatu and didn't even make it to the play-off to get to the last World Cup. Now that's a disgrace and a joke. The lad could be excused for thinking that there wasn't much of a footballing future there, with attendance in the recent qualifying campaign against pacific island teams at around 5,000. Reid is Maori, was born in New Zealand and has New Zealand parents. Depsite his time in Denmark he still has a New Zealand accent. He simply hadn't been contacted by his native country until recently, and genuinely has conflicted loyalties. We're glad we're now at a standard where it is feasible for him to come home and represent us: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=289206&cc=3436 NZ 1: SERBIA 0 come on winston
Err... you're aware that the poster you just told to piss off who was banned from the website over three years ago?
Lol, MartinB, welcome to bigsoccer.com. That was a great first post despite it being three year outdated. So time to change the thread title to "Winston Reid Choses NZ"??
haha Yeh I'd been up all night watching the match and then had to wait another 2 hours for the bus...perhaps I missed a detail or two...