Comments on: Dual nationality can be a double-edged sword

By: ish

ish — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:13:04 +0000

Its simply to do with immigration. Soccer in australia at one time was played mainly by immigrants and of course many of them would then be dual ciitizens. Players like viduka and kewell were good enough to play for their other nations but chose australia. In a way that shows how much growing in a country means to a player.

For instance germany is a good example. It has alot of turkish immigrants and many of the 2nd generation are more german then turkish. Thats why you have players like mesut ozil playing for germany over turkey.
Of course there are players that go the other way, american born rossi plays for italy through his parents.

Dual Citizenship has its advantages, players who have dual citizenship can find it easier to go play abroad, this was very important back when the a-league hadnt started. The advantages are they generally have more exposure to scouts and the standard of football is higher. The pay rate is also usually better then in australia as well.

By: Davidde Corran

Davidde Corran — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:05:52 +0000

Albert, great little article that, I’m glad I caught it so thanks.

By: Albert Ross

Albert Ross — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:55:19 +0000

A lot of national teams are becoming very cosmopolitan – including Germany’s as this NYT article points out: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/sports/soccer/01iht-SOCCER.html?hpw

By: Albert Ross

Albert Ross — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:41:16 +0000

The Republic of Ireland NT has made its footballing reputation by selecting players whose links wit’ the ould sod were tenuous in the extreme.

One such was the itinerant journeyman Terry Mancini (Watford, Port Elizabeth City, Leyton Orient, Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal, Aldershot, Los Angeles Aztecs and Barnet) who, when lined up for the national anthems prior to his first international game at age 30 against Poland at Lansdowne Road, asked a team mate, “Which one’s ours?”.

By: dasilva

dasilva — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:32:11 +0000

In terms of players loss, I would say Joe Simunic is the only really major loss. He is a regular bundesliga player and he would be a guarantee starter in the australian side. I would think he would think that if he chose to play for Australia we would have a Moore/Simunic partnership – leading to Simunic-Neill partnership over the last decade.

Other minor loss would be Didulica and seric who would have been a reasonable back up for Schwarzer and chipperfield respectively and they would have add depth to the side.

By: FIsher Price

FIsher Price — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:27:29 +0000

Kewell, Giggs, Duff…

Duff? Pah.

I’ll take Overmars.

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:48:26 +0000

Finno

We should employ someone in a full time position just to watch over those four sons for the next 20 years!!!

By: Finno

Finno — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:44:20 +0000

Pippinu your are probably right, Im sure the FFA have the scouts and feelers out for every body who is able to play.

But hows this Gabriel Batistuta sons Thiago, Lucas, Joaquín, Shamel are all able to play for Australia, Italy and Argentina.

By: Towser

Towser — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:19:26 +0000

Pippinu

Of the top of my head I’ve no memory of Christian Vieri ever wanting to play for any other country except Italy. As you say at that time why would he want to play for Australia even if given a choice. He wasnt born here anyway & left I think when he was 14. I remember his father Roberto(I think) playing for Marconi.

By: dasilva

dasilva — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:18:14 +0000

I don’t have any problems with Gulum playing for Turkey. Unlike many other players who choose to play in their ancestral home, at least he actually lived in his country of origin and have a fair idea what the country is like.

By: clayton

clayton — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:04:15 +0000

its nice to see these players NOT painted as demons, mercenaries or traitors for a change. they are normal everyday aussies who love oz, and also love their ancestral home. unless you are Aboriginal, you got ties somewhere else.

but all the FA can do is choose the best possible team and ignore the dual nationality ramifications. tieing up players for the sake of tieing up players isn`t good for anyone. there are guys out there who aren`t good enough to play for australia who could have excellent international careers with a weaker country.

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:53:33 +0000

Towser
In Vieri’s case (the better one), was there ever a realistic chance that he would have opted to play for Australia? (I don’t know his exact history, but having been involved with the Serie A from a youngish age, and given his family history, it seems hard to believe that anyone in those circumstances wouldn’t elect to play for Italy if they are wanted by Italy).

By: GeneralAshnak

GeneralAshnak — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:50:40 +0000

Very reasonable article regarding this constant elephant. I personally think that Australia is going to get boned quite often when it comes to our dual nationals, I also think that we are never going to be able to cap every single possible player who may, one day, when no one else is available, possibly, could, uhh, yeah, pick him why not?, play for Australia. Do we honestly think that we should have 200 or more capped Socceroos at any one time? What would be the point? All it would do is cheapen the Green and Gold, as well as put potential future stars of the team off – after all, who wants to ride the town bike? Seriously? You know exactly where its been…

By: Towser

Towser — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:42:18 +0000

Agree with Pippinu.
Apart from Christian Vieri I always ask the question who have we ever really lost in terms of quality. Even if we lose them did we replace them by other players equal or better than them. Well we got through to the second round of the last World Cup ,Croatia didn’t.

By: impossibleangle

impossibleangle — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:38:15 +0000

Perhaps FFA could set up a register for o/s based Oz eligible players so that no-one ‘slips under the radar’….

By: Captain Random

Captain Random — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:37:05 +0000

Finno -

Is there a reason for Bruce Djite to regret playing for the Socceroos? It’s just the Confed Cup final. It’s not too hard to reach one of those.

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:32:52 +0000

As a nation, we probably have to stop getting too excited about this issue – we’re going to win some and lose some and it will be very rare circumstances that we let an absolute gun slip through our grasp (think about the extent we went to nail Cahill when at one point he was deemed to be a Samoan national).

If this bloke gets a call up to the Turkey NT at the age of 24 or so – good luck to him, we should wish him all the best , it would be a great achievement – there would be absolutely no need for anyone to get antagonistic either to him or the FFA or Pim – the likelihood is that at best he would be a fringe player in either NT – so it really isn’t an issue that should exercise us in any way.

I will say this though – with us occasionally playing qualifiers in the Middle East on non-FIFA dates, it is a boon for us to have half a dozen blokes playing in Turkey – even as a fringe NT player, this bloke could be handy for that reason alone.

By: sledgeross

sledgeross — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:26:16 +0000

Cmon, max Vieri was a gun

By: Finno

Finno — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:07:57 +0000

Sign them up if they show 1/2 a promising career in football. Imagine Christian Vieri playing as a Socceroo?. Instead we sign Max his brother not quite as good.

Signing Harry Kewell was a great move for us. As England would have played him when he was a Leeds as he was cleary the best attacking left mid in the country at the time with Giggs and Duff. And England at the time was struggling to find a player to fit in that role.

I wonder if Bruce Djente regrets playing for the Socceroos, but not real sure if he would have got a run for the USA.

But if we are playing a dead rubber game get the young guys in get them to play and if thier career develops..Good news for Australia. Rhys Williams was clearly not over come in the Japan game and has a promising career, I was really happy to see him on the pitch.

By: md

md — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:46:20 +0000

In addition to the above I suppose the only other question is: are these guys prepared to defy their clubs to play for OZ in the Asian Cup qualifiers on non-FIFA dates? If so, then yeah, lets get them in the train-on squad for the Asian Cup and give them their shot if they are better than the others available.
Cheers
md

By: md

md — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:43:38 +0000

Paddy,
It’s maybe a fair point around the time of the Olympics, but in a World Cup year where every match will count for both the team as a unit and the individual players in terms of being in that final WC squad, let me pose the question: who do you drop from the current squad so that Gulum – a lig2 player from a second tier domestic competition, gets his chance in the green and gold?
Cheers
md

By: Ben Somerford

Ben Somerford — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:01:35 +0000

Yep interesting points Paddy. Ersan Gulum is kinda a forgotten man down playing in Turkey’s 2nd tier. But he was rated some time back as a player of some promise, so indeed it would be a shame to let him slip thru the cracks.