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Tetteys Jig

A bit OT but (Un) England 2018 World Cup squad

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So all this fuss about Januzaj and Wilshires misinterpreted comments got me thinking, what uncapped players from the premiership could we bring along to 2018?

The debate isn''t completely new, Almunia and Arteta have both been linked before. It does appear all our foreigners at Norwich other than youth players have had full international caps, so none of our lads could go. Bradley Johnson always ends up as a USA international on my Footy Manager though!

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Ok, ''take'' to Russia.

Jose Enrique''s never played for Spain, could we have him? Once Cole''s finished, Enrique would be good back up?

On that note, Garrido''s never played for Spain, maybe he''d like to join up?

Sylvan Distin would be getting on, but perhaps we could persuade him?

Arteta? How about him in an England shirt? Old debate and i think i''m right in saying there''s something in the law meaning he can''t play for England any more? Someone needs to ask Wilshire what he''d think to lining up with him in an England shirt?

Younes Kaboul? Yet to play for France? Could be the lynchpin we need at the back?

Perhaps if we were really struggling, our own Luciano Becchio could get a game?

Michu? He''s only just been called up, perhaps we can get him to make a last minute dramatic U Turn and persuade him to play for England?

Any promising youngsters coming through? We missed out on Paul Pogba and Gerard Pique when Man U let them go, perhaps they could have been the next Paul Ince and Bobby Moore?

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A quick bit of research lead to me finding out Arteta can''t play for England as he didn''t have dual nationality when he played for Spain Under 16''s

What is unique about Januzaj is that he''s repeatedly refused youth level call ups for Belgium saying he wants to play for Albania. Now England are involved we''re trying to ''poach'' him from Albania effectively.

In this case, I agree with Wilshere.

Anyone seen the Qatari national side? There''s a Brazilian bloke up front who''s alright but not Brazil national team material they effectively bought by bringing him to the national league and giving him a Qatari passport! Surely that crosses the line!

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[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]A quick bit of research lead to me finding out Arteta can''t play for England as he didn''t have dual nationality when he played for Spain Under 16''s

What is unique about Januzaj is that he''s repeatedly refused youth level call ups for Belgium saying he wants to play for Albania. Now England are involved we''re trying to ''poach'' him from Albania effectively.

In this case, I agree with Wilshere.

Anyone seen the Qatari national side? There''s a Brazilian bloke up front who''s alright but not Brazil national team material they effectively bought by bringing him to the national league and giving him a Qatari passport! Surely that crosses the line![/quote]What makes it even more intriguing is that he''s yet to play for Albania at any level either. I suspect as his parents are Kosovan Albanians, he''s waiting for Kosovo to have its team officially recognised by FIFA/UEFA. To be honest, if you look at the current squads why would anyone choose England ahead of Belgium??

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I seem to recall Togo have a few Brazilian players in their team to. certainly remember a Brazilian guy called Alex playing for Japan at the 2002 wold cup, I''m sure that Italy have had a few Argentians and Brazilains recently, and the gut (can''t remember his name) who played DM for Spain at Euro 2008 was Brazilian too. Mehmet Aurelio plays for Turkey too having ben Braziian originally. Germany have had a few ''naturalised'' players recently too. If these countries are doing it, I think we should do it too.

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Perhaps it''s not about ability? Nobody really knows what he''s feeling about the decision but himself i''d guess. I guess his case is a very unique one because anybody who''s half decent has represented their country at some level usually (like Arteta). The fact he''s not had any youth exposure and yet is potentially good enough for England or Belgium isn''t that common.

It is a bit strange he''s not played for Albania yet but used that as the excuse for rejecting Belgium.

Have you seen the Maik Taylor case? Not Northern Irish at all and not even lived there, but because he''s German and became nationalised because of his English dad, he was nationalised a british national and so had free reign of the home nations to choose from. With his limited abilities, Northern Ireland were the only ones who needed him.

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[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]Perhaps it''s not about ability? Nobody really knows what he''s feeling about the decision but himself i''d guess. I guess his case is a very unique one because anybody who''s half decent has represented their country at some level usually (like Arteta). The fact he''s not had any youth exposure and yet is potentially good enough for England or Belgium isn''t that common.

It is a bit strange he''s not played for Albania yet but used that as the excuse for rejecting Belgium.

Have you seen the Maik Taylor case? Not Northern Irish at all and not even lived there, but because he''s German and became nationalised because of his English dad, he was nationalised a british national and so had free reign of the home nations to choose from. With his limited abilities, Northern Ireland were the only ones who needed him.[/quote]I seem to remember thats how Gossy qualified for Wales - he was born in Cyprus as his dad was in the forces and as a British Citizen could choose any of the home nations, having spent some of his childhood in Wales he chose them (or they chose him). I remember a story a few years ago that Northern Ireland were considering calling up Dele Adebola - he qualified because he was a UK citizen but he was born in Nigeria. In the end I think he rejected the call up.

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I quick look on the internet gave me this list of players born elsewhere who where in various squads at the last World Cup. Obviously some (all the Algerians born in France, Kevin Prince Boateng playing for Ghana for example) qualify through parents/grandparents, but some must have been ''naturalised'' citizens:

CountryForeign born players
Algeria17 – Madjid Bougherra, Nadir Belhadj, Antar Yahia, Yazid Mansouri, Ryad

Boudebouz, Medhi Lacen, Abdelkader Ghezzal, Rafik Djebbour, Habib Bellaïd, Karim

Matmour, Carl Medjani, Karim Ziani, Adlène Guedioura, Hassan Yebda, Foued Kadir,

Djamel Abdoun and Raïs M’Bohli (all France)
Portugal6 – Deco, Pepe, Liédson (Brazil), Danny Miguel (Venezuela), Nani – (Cape

Verde) and Daniel Fernandes (Canada)
Switzerland5 – Valon Behrami, Albert Bunjaku, Xherdan Shaqiri (Kosovo), Blaise Nkufo

(DR Congo) and Gelson Fernandes (Cape Verde)
Cameroon4 – Benoît Assou-Ekotto, Sébastien Bassong (both France) and Eric Maxim

Choupo-Moting, Joël Matip (both Germany)
Germany4 – Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose (both Poland), Cacau (Brazil) and Marko

Marin (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
New Zealand4 – Tim Brown, Dave Mulligan, Tommy Smith (all England) and Shane Smeltz

(Germany)
Chile3 – Jorge Valdivia (Venezuela), Mark González (South Africa) and Matías

Fernández (Argentina)
France3 – Patrice Evra (Senegal), Flourent Malouda (French Guiana) and Steve

Mandanda (DR Congo)
Greece3 – Avraam Papadopoulos (Australia), Loukas Vyntra (Czech Republic) and

Sotiris Ninis (Albania)
Australia2 – Nikita Rukavytsya (Ukraine) and Dario Vidošić (Croatia)
Ghana2 – André Ayew (France) and Kevin-Prince Boateng (Germany)
Ivory Coast2 – Guy Demel and Sol Bamba (both France)
North Korea2 – Ahn Young-Hak and Jong Tae-Se (both Japan)
Paraguay2 – Jonathan Santana and Néstor Ortigoza (both Argentina)
Serbia2 – Neven Subotić (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Zdravko Kuzmanović

(Switzerland)
Slovenia2 – Elvedin Džinič and Zlatko Dedič (both Bosnia &

Herzegovina)
USA2 – Benny Feilhaber (Brazil) and Stuart Holden (Scotland)
Denmark1 – Jesper Grønkjær (Greenland)*
Italy1 – Mauro Camoranesi (Argentina)
Japan1 – Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Brazil)
Mexico1 – Guilherme Franco (Argentina)
Netherlands1 – Edson Braafheid (Suriname)
Nigeria1 – Peter Odemwingie (Uzbekistan)
South Africa1 – Bongani Khumalo (Swaziland)
South Korea1 – Cha Du-Ri (Germany)

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Nice find! I wonder if some of these guys regret their choice or if some of the nations that ''missed out'' on these guys do? The Portugese seem to have lucked out with this, basically, they get players over from Brazil with ease, give them a passport and hey presto, another world class international! Funny how they both struggle to find an out and out striker often. I''m surprised none of our players are on there

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Lets not forget our ''own'' Owen HArgreaves, who played for England despite spending his entire life living in Canada then Germany. (His mum was Welsh, his Dad was English.I am a keen follower of both the English Cricket and Rugby (both League and Union) Teams and my enjoyment is not diminished by the fact that they are part-populated by Kiwis/South Africans/Samoans etc.We live in a global society now. One of my close friends is an American who has lived in the UK for some years - there was nobody cheering louder when Team GB brought home all the medals at the last Olympics.

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If you think Qatar''s recruitment policy for football is shady, Jimmy, have a look at their history with athletics and the drain on African countries.

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Raheem Sterling born Jamaica

Wilfred Zaha born Ivory Coast

Saido Berahino born Burundi

Thats 3 players in the England U21 squad not born in England, so according to someone they shouldnt be eligable for England

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I think there''s a line, the three aformentioned players have either blood relatives of british nationality and/ or have bee brought up and immersed in the british culture, it''s not like Sterling''s just stepped off the plane from Jamaica and gone, "right, which way''s Wembley?"

Pietersen qualifies by way of having an english mum and doing 4 years on our shores, so again, he''s the right side of the line.

The wrong side of the line is someone like Januzaj, who we''re effectively stealing from Albania. The Maik Taylor one is also the wrong side of the line.

Another name for you, Tony Cascarino. Since he finished playing, hasn''t he admitted he''s not Irish in the slightest? How can he represent Ireland when he''s not remotely associated with the country other than his international caps?

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[quote user="I Love Fernando Derveld"]Another one for you - Diego Poyet (son of Gus) Born in spain, brought up in England, plays for the England u-18 team

[/quote]

He''s similar to the 3 under 21-s i guess, just because he''s had a wealthy upbringing doesn''t make him different. If he''s come over when his dad started playing, that means he''s been here practically all his life and probably qualifies having had 5 years education here. I bet he''s as english as the 3 under 21''s in personality as well. What wouldn''t be right is if his dad went to say Germany to manage, his son going over with him and picking to represent Germany.

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[quote user="I Love Fernando Derveld"]Lets not forget our ''own'' Owen HArgreaves, who played for England despite spending his entire life living in Canada then Germany. (His mum was Welsh, his Dad was English.

I am a keen follower of both the English Cricket and Rugby (both League and Union) Teams and my enjoyment is not diminished by the fact that they are part-populated by Kiwis/South Africans/Samoans etc.

We live in a global society now. One of my close friends is an American who has lived in the UK for some years - there was nobody cheering louder when Team GB brought home all the medals at the last Olympics.
[/quote]

 

Careful ILFD, you''ll have Waveney all over this claiming your friend is the plastic of all plastics...[Y]

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He''s been there since he was 10, so he''s eligible. I do think once you''ve played for a youth team of a country, that should be that. At least at under 21 level anyway, i could have some sympathy for a kid changing his mind after under 18''s 19''s but by under 21''s you should have made your mind up.

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Then theres Diego Costa - called up and played for Brazil in 2 friendlies last March, now eligible for Spain and in there squad. I know FIFA have tightened up their rules recently to the 5 years residency/schooling rather than just citizenship to stop the fast tracking  by Quatar etc, but surely there should be a rule that if you''ve have played any senior international (not just competitive ones), then you should not be allowed to switch nationalities.

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With international migration increasingly common this is going to become a bigger issue, especially in England where there isn''t a long history of nationalised footballers.

 

In many European countries there have been a steady stream of nationalised players and people have become fairly use to it - Brazilians in Portugal for example or Argentinians in Italy. Alfredo Di Stefano famously played for Colombia, Argentina and Spain. There has been a recent trend of displaced Kosovans/Bosnians/Croatias playing for various nations across Europe from Granit Xhaka to Shefki Kuqi and the much longer running pattern or African players representing France.

 

In the UK the home nations agreement pretty much rules out nationalisation of players with the 5 years of schooling rule but it is difficult to employ one unified rule across football when nationality, ethnicty and citizenship are impossible to pin down and in many ways subjective to the individual. It would seem strange to me that a player could hold a passport of a country but not be allowed to represent them at international level. I imagine in 15 - 20 years time there will be a fair few players representing England with Polish surnames.

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Leads to another debate, where are all the asian name players? There''s millions of British Asians now, is Michael Chopra really all we can manage?

I suppose cricket we have Bopara and Monty amongst others! Having an Irish grandfather, i''d feel proud enough to play for them, but i lived in China for 2 months and don''t feel remotely Chinese and wouldn''t do even if i stayed there another 5 years.

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