QuoteThat's probably your mistake right there.Originally Posted by Predator
Via Rep Tracker and the England dual player thread - Josh Acheampong who this season debuted for Chelsea, a right back, is eligible.
The England dual thread on big soccer is always good for a smile if you are having a bad day lads, most of their underage have multiple options so they are in a state of constant mild anguish interspersed by waves of pure panic.
That's probably your mistake right there.
My girlfriend is German and she was home for Christmas and came back saying that her father told her he had seen something on tv about a player who had to choose between Ireland and Germany. Presumably it must be Paul Nebel. She couldn’t remember but said the name sounded right.
Not sure if the fact it’s in the public domain there means he’s actively considering switching or if the scrutiny means he’s less likely to slip through the cracks and switch
I think Nebel is one we could potentially pick up down the line (they'll all come out of the woodwork if/when we qualify for Euro 2028). But his recent form could be pushing him close to a Germany call up, which is probably our biggest risk with him.
How many players have we had before whose first language was not English?
Aside from the Derry players?
Probably none at senior level I'd guess?
But MacNulty, Kohlmann, Johansson and others may count at underage?
You’d love him and Harvey Vale from Chelsea, along with Bradshaw at Liverpool. Saw the game against Rovers and Acheampong was excellent. England have so so many right backs, I do think it’s weird that other countries have successfully convinced English capped players to switch and we are going the opposite way. Can’t convince any of Delap, Cirkin, Barry, Dewsbury Hall, Jobe Bellingham, Charlie McNeill. And previously Maddison, Phillips, Gallagher etc.
- Wilf Zaha to Ivory Coast having been fully capped by England
- Lamptey to Ghana as a current England u21
- Anton Robinson to USA having been called up by England u21 at the same window as his first US senior call up
- Balagun to USA as a current England u21 (13 caps, 7 goals)
- Yunus Musia who switched to USA seniors as an England u18, rejecting Southgate’s various approaches as senior manager to convince him to stay
- Matt o’riley to Denmark at u21 level having been an England u18
- Jamal Musiala to Germany as an England u21
- Brennan Johnson to Wales u19, as an England u17
- Felix Nmencha to Germany u21 as an England u19
Also the guys, England failed to recruit: McTominay who rejected them for Scotland, Fabio Carvalho who rejected them for Portugal, Armando Broja who rejected them for Albania - all in comparison to Rice and Grealish…
None at senior level unless you count Cheo Ogbene, who moved here at 7 or 8 and picked up the language then. Sean McDermott was called up to the senior squad but wasn’t capped. In terms of underage players, these are who I can think of:
Spain - John Joe Patrick Finn, Aaron Ochoa Maloney, Caden McLoughlin, Anselmo Garcia McNulty, Ramon Martos
France - Tom Gaston
Belgium - Liam Bossin
Netherlands - Barry Maguire
Luxembourg - Ryan Johansson
Germany - Conor Noß, Patrick kohlmann, Aydin Allyev
Norway - Sean McDermott
Denmark - William Martin
Italy - Matteo Egan
Switzerland - Daniel Babb? (I know he arrived in Ireland as an u15 from Switzerland, nothing else)
I think this is all down to tournament qualifications. Most of those teams are serial qualifiers for major tournaments, and many have a much easier qualification path compared to us. The only exception is probably Johnson to Wales, who are a less safe bet for qualifications , but he declared for them at a time when they've been qualifying for tournaments at least semi-regularly.
If we start qualifying again, players will appear that we don't even know are eligible - just look at what happened with the women's team before the World Cup.
Even without the qualifications we've captured a number of players in the last year who would have had other options - Cannon, McGuinness, Szmodics, Azaz, McAteer. It will be a few years before we know how that group turns out for us. Hopefully we can confirm Vata next.
I see this as very important because the standard of what we've produced ourselves since the Brexit rules came in is worrying to say the least, and there's no quick fix for that other than sending more young players to continental.Europe, which is far from ideal.
John Aldridge?
Delap looks like the England number 9 in the making. He will surely be called up within the next couple of squad announcements.
Our main hope here was his father trying to come good on his assertion that his kids would play for Ireland and trying to push him into representing us. However, you'd think he could have pushed him into this at a younger age if either Liam or Rory were that interested after all. He stated in 2021 that he "would never put pressure on him (Liam) to make a choice either way."
Rory was part of Robbie Keane's coaching staff in Israel so must be an ally of Robbie. Not sure how receptive he'd have been recently to a call from the FAI.
There have surely been other England players with fathers that represented other countries? There are a good instances of a divergence across England, Wales and Scotland.
I don't think Angel Gomes's father won a senior cap for Portugal (but he was on a strong underage side with their golden generation) but Callum Hudson Odoi's father may have done for Ghana. They never got the benefit of Erling Haaland, thankfully, but he spent much of his formative years in Norway anyway.
For Wales, Ethan Ampadu's father played for Ireland underage before Ethan plumped for Wales - where he wasn't born and hasn't really lived I don't believe. Similar point for Brennan Johnson but his father (David) played for Jamaica.
Bryan Gunn's son Angus held out as long as he could for an England cap before representing the country that his father did, Scotland.
Kasper Schmeichel rejected England for Denmark.
Did they ever chase Gio Reyna? I don’t remember it being public if they did
Reyna was first capped by the US in a friendly against Wales the day before he turned 18. Would the rules at the time have ruled him out for England?
I thought we'd established that Delap is no longer eligible, as he has played competitive underage internationals for England since he turned 21
He is as it stands, but there's talk of that rule getting changed. The rule currently rules out Nebel also.
We actually don’t know that. If Delap was registered on the foreign birth’s register by 23rd of March 2022, then he’s still eligible.
For Nebel, the date is 20th of March 2019.
Source: p30 if they are on the foreign birth’s register then they’re 9-2a players - if not, they’re 9-2b players
https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/ccab99...rvfbmi-pdf.pdf
Harley O'Grady-Macken (20) was on the Blackburn Rovers' bench for the third time yesterday. Transfermarkt suggests he is eligible for Ireland.
Time for the FAI to get on their bike and have a word !
Neil O'Riordan has a piece on Nebel tomorrow that might be interesting. Interestingly he has posted on Twitter that the rule about competitive underage caps tying players is no longer in operation - apparently he was told by a source at FIFA. So the likes of Delap and Nebel remain untied to their countries of birth. Similarly there is now no way for us to tie someone like Vata, Umeh or Orazi through underage caps.
Players can therefore now only be tied through competitive senior caps.
Last edited by Eirambler; 10/01/2025 at 6:16 PM.
You know, I think that's how it should be - it doesn't feel right that a 19-year-old at the start of an U21 qualifying campaign should have to be thinking about whether successfully making the finals two years later will cut off avenues for a senior international career.
But even if this does make Delap eligible again, I think we're just putting off the inevitable - it's clear his preferred pathway is to the England senior team and, based on his form this season, he's close to the end of that pathway. He'll likely make his competitive debut for England this year.
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