marcel desailly

[Beeks]

Personally I think you should only be able to play for the country on your birth certificate

yeah cause De Rossi is possibly the most english englishman on the planet. Poor Germany would be even more fucked than Ireland, do they actually have any germans there at all?

exactly my point! Would make for interesting lineups..plus surely 'playing for your country' should mean your place of birth!

[Fidel Castro]

Personally I think you should only be able to play for the country on your birth certificate

yeah cause De Rossi is possibly the most english englishman on the planet. Poor Germany would be even more fucked than Ireland, do they actually have any germans there at all?

exactly my point! Would make for interesting lineups..plus surely 'playing for your country' should mean your place of birth!

Like I said mate, what if you were born on holiday or when your parents were working ina foreign country for a couple of years?
I used to know a kid who was born in Nigeria cos his dad was a doctor there for a short period. Should he only be able to represent Nigeria, even though his parents are Dutch, he has lived in Holland ever since he was a few months old and has never been to Nigeria?

[Renato_CTID]

To be fair, one of the best central defenders I ever saw and has World Cup and European Championship winners medals for France.

Don't forget his impressive 1992-1995 period as a defensive midfielder in AC Milan managed by Don Fabio Capello!

[petrov]

Personally I think you should only be able to play for the country on your birth certificate

yeah cause De Rossi is possibly the most english englishman on the planet. Poor Germany would be even more fucked than Ireland, do they actually have any germans there at all?

exactly my point! Would make for interesting lineups..plus surely 'playing for your country' should mean your place of birth!

No because thats not your country, spendin your first year in a country and growing up somewhere else your nearly always gonna choose where you grow up, where your friends are and the land you are going to love.

Taking Desailly as an example, he was whipped out of a poor Ghana at age 4, his whole life and all his memories are from France, i'd imagine he has very little memory of Ghana (if any..) but it obviously holds a place in his heart as his mother is Ghanian and its the country of his birth. I'd imagine it was much later in life when he took interest in Ghana and his roots (as it tends to be with everyone) and for all purposes he considers himself both french and ghanian. I'd wager if pushed he'd go France though.

I know cause i've lived most my life in Ireland despite being born in England. I have huge admiration for England and still refer to them as "we" but I refer to Ireland as my home and nationality (fortunately for me i'm not a pro footballer.)
I don't agree with the ROI method but thankfully they seem to do it less and less these days but in alot of circumstances its a case of them being and italian who just happened to be born in England (DeRossi) or German who just happened to be born in Poland (10 of the 11 players who took the field today).

[Beeks]

My point is players shouldn't be able to choose their nationality

They will always choose the more successful team for the reasons above

(Ryan Giggs being an exception)

If players had to play for their country of birth then it would give some of the lesser footballing nations a chance to improve if a talented footballer is born in their nation

I would have thought if you have any ties to a country no matter how small you would be proud to be called up for international duty