Varies person to person. I'd qualify for England, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and USA under the current rules but it would be wrong for me to play for anyone but England since I consider myself English... I was born and raised in England and consider myself English. My roommate in University was Kuwaiti born Palestinian... but almost immediately identified himself as American once he moved to US (same year I did). We've both lived in US same length of time but he considers himself American and I don't. It would be perfectly OK for him to play for USA but not me.
Interesting article, having googled some of those names they moved to Germany as infants. As I mentioned earlier the war created a difficult citizenship issue, German Jews fleeing to Poland etc - very complicated history.
and this is the nub of the issue the question is not about whether a player feels is is of a certain nationality but whether england and english fans should accept a player who "feels english" but is not perceived by the xenophobes like wilshire as being english. In short it was never "fine" to have a foreign coach for some. The majority were ok as long as quali went swimmingly and they had some forlorn early hope of winning. england appointed mcclaren and hodgson.... to sooth the furrowed brows of the BNP wannabes. results.. abject craptitude.... capello and erisken got decent result for england.... Qf... frankly the same debate for me is not put forth by the likes of whilshire. If someone felt they were english he'd still by his comments have a problem. Stay tuned raheem sterling!
I think what all your criteria are a load of nonsense. the best one I have heard/read is from John Barnes: If you were born in this country or came to this country for non football reasons as a child with your family (like JB did) and stayed here, then you should be able to represent this country. Simple and fair. No buying of passports. John Barnes, Mo Farrah, will qualify but No kevin Pietersen or Zola Budd (who was given a passport by the Thatcher government to represent the UK). Also No Januzaj. He is talented and may well do well for this country but he is not English...
How many English players were in the Liverpool Cup winning side of 1986? I'll give you a big clue - McMahon was on the bench but didn't get on the pitch.
Covers just about everyone on not606 - either eccentric, fanatical, or irrational. ... some are all those things ..... you know who you are!
The Scots and Irish beat the pants off the English - even if it was our more further afield cousins who scored
I think people should be eligible to play for the country that they, or one of their parents, were born in. If, that is, the parents were immigrants to that country, not itinerant workers. Diplomats, for instance, might spend several years working in a country and might have kids there, and I think they should only be entitled to play for the parents' country (or countries). I have no problem with dual nationality, but being eligible through a grandparent is stretching it for me.
Far too restrictive. John barnes, Anderson, and a few others will not have been able to play for England.
Its down to the honour system in a way. You hope players will play for the nations which they identify with... for me that would be England... my old roommate USA. Fans should get behind those players even if they are foreign born. As long as their motives are pure (sometimes hard to tell). The national team shouldn't be looking for people who don't consider themselves English but open their arms to those that do. Its not something that can or should be regulated too strictly... you have to trust people to do what is right but understand many won't and there isn't a fig you can do about it.
Not sure how familiar you are with the US National team but for the most part the German Americans have been good and said they want to play: Jones, Boyd, etc. But one looks like he is just trying to use it as a stepping stone and that is Timmy Chandler. I think Klinsmann saw right through him and has since dropped him from the team.
I expressed my opinion and I stand by it, although I might stretch it to include fully naturalised citizens. If Barnes hadn't been eligible then he wouldn't have played for England and nobody would have given it a second thought. Of course, the waters are further muddied by the fact that Jamaica only became independent the year before Barnes was born, so his parents were, technically, British.
I think claiming nationality through a grandparent is fine - many children are raised by grandparents - so maybe that's where to draw the line.
I just responded to the last comment JB What if Januzai claims to "feel" English then...? There is no measurement for judgement, it is purely opinionated. This is what creates issues.
