Updated: U.S. May Be Losing A Few Internationals
Posted by on February 2, 2011
A few days after seeing Giusseppi Rossi do this while also hearing that his back-up American Jozy Altidore will be transferring to Bursaspor , talking about dual-citizens may be a bit of a sensitive subject.
Yet it comes up again anyway. Connor Doyle, who was born and raised in Texas to an Irish father and therefore has both Irish and American citizenship, has been called up to the Ireland U-21 team. Doyle has a legitimate chance of being a part of World Cup Qualifying in this cycle, and being a part of the World Cup team in Brazil, but he is still undecided as to whether or not he will try to do so with the Republic of Ireland or with the United States. Decisions like this are always rough on both the player and the fan. New Jersey born Rossi gained many enemies when he chose to suit up for the Azzuri rather than for America, although his was a particularly sharp example due to the dearth of talented forwards in the U.S. player pool. Connor Doyle is in a slightly different situation as he would be much farther back on the depth chart in a crowded midfield. The key issue in his situation, is how to handle the fact that he seems to be leaning towards playing the field; playing for both youth teams until he is fully required to make a decision How does U-20 Coach Thomas Rongen handle a player who won’t commit to the team. There is somewhat of a precedent on this matter as Sonny Guadarrama did something very similar a few years ago according to Yanks Abroad (although that’s the only source I could find to verify the story). Guadarrama apparently played in the U.S. youth ranks, switched over to the Mexican U-20 team, and then attempted to return to the American team. At this point Rongen took it upon himself to have the players vote as to whether or note Guadarrama should or should not be allowed to play for the U.S. They voted against it and Sonny never appeared again for the American team.
UPDATE: Andy Najar says he was misquoted
The other related story is that DC United’s Andy Najar also is calling his nationality into question. The Honduran-American player was quoted in Diez as saying ”The shirt I’ll defend is the place of my birth.” The article also depicts him wearing a Honduras jersey with a Honduras flag draped around him. Although the quote is apparently not entirely reliable. Najar has also recently been rumored to have been invited to the Honduran U-20 camp, although this also has been called into question. Basically nobody really knows what Andy Najar will do, but he’s a good player for DC United and he’d fit in nicely if he established himself in the attacking fullback position he occasionally plays in DC.
Basically there is no right way for a player with Dual Citizenship to go about deciding what country to play for. The only one I would argue is really objectively agreeable from all sides is the way Mixx Diskerud went about resolving it. Mixx was eligible to play for both the U.S. and Norway, but has since appeared for the USMNT. He decided long before he was called up that his decision would be on a “first come, first served basis. The US called him up to the senior team to face South Africa last year and his fate was decided for him. he accepted that it was too tough of a decision for him to make himself so he would let fate decide it for him. I’m sure Norwegians may be disappointed at the outcome but they really can’t argue the method.
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http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=blog&entry=154
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http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5813765/mikkel-diskerud-gets-shot-us-national-team
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