Home Grown or Naturalised?

[leohoenig]

Adnan Januzaj's appearance and goals for Manchester United yesterday spark a possible controversy over international player registration.
Januzaj was born in Brussels to Kosovar-Albanian parents. Reports say that he is also eligible to play for Turkey and Serbia through his grandparents.
Having already spent two years in this country, he will soon be qualified by UEFA as a home grown player, as defined for Champions League. At least eight players in a clubs "A" list must have been raised in football terms within the country. That means three years in the country between the ages of 15 and 21.

Internationally, he has refused to be called up for Belgium despite it being an exciting time for the Belgian national team.

Fifa rules for nationality (quoted from Wikipedia) demand

Any Player who ... [assumes] a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match ... in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfills one of the following conditions:
(a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
(d) He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association.

This has led to Hodgson mentioning him as a future England possibility on Match of the Day - but this ignores another agreement between the home nations which prevents the countries selecting a player on the basis of residence. These rules have been confirmed by the Scottish FA in 2008, saying that Nacho Novo could not represent Scotland by taking British citizenship, and the FA Wales making the same ruling on Angel Rangel. The rules of the home nations and more recently FIFA have been adjusted to include players who have spent five years before the age of 18 in education in a country. Hence Andrew Driver, born in England, but living in Scotland since the age of 11 became a Scottish International, while Andy Dorman who has lived most of his life in Hawarden (Wales, but close to England) became a Welsh International.

FIFA have amended their own rules from country to territory which ended another British anomaly. A British citizen born outside the UK could end up with any of the home nations, as Maik Taylor proved when becoming the Northern Ireland goalkeeper. Taylor had an English Father, German Mother, was born in Germany and spent most of his life in England, (he played as a youngster for ASC Neinburg in Neidersachsen). At the time, FIFA regulations regarded him as naturalised British and therefore eligible for all four. The word territory means he only become naturalised "English" in football terms, and he was always eligible to play for England (or Germany) thanks to his parents.

FIFA now allow a player to become naturalised if s/he spends five years as an under-18 there, removing the possibility that a long term resident is prevented from playing for an adopted country (at least if s/he has never played for anyone else).

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Interesting. I recall when there was a clamour for Arteta and Almunia to play for England who quite fairly had no interest - why would they?

From what I heard, the young lad at Man U rejected Belgium as he wants to play for Albania. I would imagine England would be behind both those nations in his list of teams to want to play for.

If the Belgium All Stars go to Brazil with the hopes of Europe on their shoulders he may be tempted to go with them?

[asl]

Cudiccini (one-time best substitute keeper in the Premiership at a time when the best we had was David "can't find own arse with both hands" James) springs to my mind.

It's a good job cricketers and rugby players don't have a similar sense of national loyalty...

[Andy]

My thoughts on this: Let the kid decide for himself and then do what he needs to do to become qualified as an international player for that team.

Football is not a slave market and there should be no bidding / public "shout outs" of nations to try to stake a claim on an invidivual.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

My thoughts on this: Let the kid decide for himself and then do what he needs to do to become qualified as an international player for that team.

Football is not a slave market and there should be no bidding / public "shout outs" of nations to try to stake a claim on an invidivual.

Indeed. I love how in this country half the blurb about this issue presumes it's an honour for any foreigner to play for England.

[Neil]

It's ok for our cricket team

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

90 per cent of Commonwealth cricketers* are directly related to English expats so in essence anyone should be able to play for England.

*made up stat.

[Shade]

I see it more of just letting the kid know that we're an option for him to consider, rather than bidding for him. Don't want him playing for Belgium/Albania and then a year later he realises he could have been playing for the all-conquering Three Lions...

I'd be interested to know whether Ryan Giggs wishes he had played for England and gone to experience a few big tournaments during his career.

[Malabus]

Why are people saying his half Albanian? Try telling that to the Serbs.