How many "Foreigners" in your national team.

Otto, trying a somewhat pathetic Diesler type wind-up (must be a particularly poor day) posted something about some Canadian born player.
Which got me thinking, how many foreign born players play for international teams.

I'll start, for Portugal, there is Deco, of course, a Brasilian that come to Portugal relatively early in his career.
Petit, although not a regular starter, was actually born in France, with Portuguese parentage, and came to Portugal at an early age.

What about your country?

zero.

we never even had any foreign coach.

though I think Guus Hiddink should be our coach right now, our first foreigner ever.

A lot of the French team that won the World Cup weren't really frogs.

None, but I've lost count of the Argentines playing for other teams and now even kids who haven't finished school already are seduced to play for other countries...well, whatever country treats their father better...I absolutely hate when Argentines play for other countries(even if they don't succeed)...except for Italy...not sure why

yeah, man, the list is long, beginning with the great di stéfano.

there are also dozens of Brazilians playing for other countries.

Barrilete_Cosmico wrote:None, but I've lost count of the Argentines playing for other teams and now even kids who haven't finished school already are seduced to play for other countries...well, whatever country treats their father better...I absolutely hate when Argentines play for other countries(even if they don't succeed)...except for Italy...not sure why

well Germans have about 5, the french national team is like an immigration centre

We have "Zinha" who is Brazilian and Guille Franco who is Argentinian. I really don't care much Its all about being Mexican at heart.

Guille Franco's story is just amazing. He was living in an abandoned boat in Buenos Aires. Homeless with no family and no money. He went to try out for San Lorenzo and played in the lower divisions for a while. Monterrey gave him a shot and he's been in Mexico until recently going to Villareal in Spain.

That's why he decided to play for Mexico because this country gave him everything he has and he is thankful for it .

Zinha came has played in Mexico forever. So it was only natural to make the change. He is an amazing footballer but at first no one wanted him to play for us. He didn't do well under the pressure but decided to shut everyone up being a key player in Germany and playeing absolutely brill football.

Italy just have Camoranesi, who is Argentine born!

england have Hargreaves...who is made up of about 4...

Germany have about 27

Perrotta is England-born

Supperpippo wrote:Italy just have Camoranesi, who is Argentine born!

And, as Hardrada said - Perrotta.

Amauri soon too by the looks of it.

Yes, i forgot about Perrotta, born in England but with Italian parents! Amauri will be if he gets citizenship! In the Italy Under21 there is Giuseppe Rossi, american born!

Doel: Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax), Henk Timmer (Feyenoord) en Sander Boschker (FC Twente)

Verdediging: Urby Emanuelson en John Heitinga (beiden Ajax), Tim de Cler, Kew Jaliens en Barry Opdam (allen AZ), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Barcelona), André Ooijer (Blackburn Rovers), Khalid Boulahrouz (Chelsea) en Joris Mathijsen (HSV)

Middenveld: Hedwiges Maduro en Wesley Sneijder (beiden Ajax), David Mendes da Silva, Stijn Schaars en Demy de Zeeuw (allen AZ), Evander Sno (Celtic), Ibrahim Afellay (PSV), Rafael van der Vaart (HSV) en Denny Landzaat (Wigan Athletic)

Aanval: Ryan Babel en Klaas Jan Huntelaar (beiden Ajax), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Danny Koevermans (AZ), Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Celtic), Arjen Robben (Chelsea) en Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool).

From this squad all our players were born in the Netherlands! So there is NO "Foreigner" in our team

@Millwall

you miss the point

there is nothing wrong with foreign born players as long as they learnt their football in the country they are playing for, as long as they call that country HOME

Klose, the PRINZ... do just that

Hargreaves though has at best tenuous links with England

if he visited this island on a holiday he would say:

" it's so weird, these English drive on the wrong side of the road"

" these English talk funny"

" who is Jordan? never heard of her "

" how can these English eat Marmite and why is the beer warm?"

" English fans are mad to pay up to £50 for an EPL ticket; and why do they still go to watch teams that are blatently boring ?"

" why do the English still have a King, and why did their President sent solidiers into Iraq?"

" what is a pint and where can I see a red Routemaster ?"

" those bobbies are funny; oh look , mum, that guard is wearing the bear I shot"

None of Germanys squad are German - fact

Started well Otto, then tailed off.

I don't think Perrotta and Rossi count, coz they have Italian parents... if Perrotta had played for England, or Rossi for USA, then they would have been foriegn players...

Camoranesi, yeah, he is an Oriundi and should have played for Argentina. There have been a lot of argies/uruguans with some Italian ancestery who have played for Italy in the past like Monti, Guaita, Orsi, Altafini, Sivori, and Schiaffino. But I think most of this was stopped post the disastrous results in 50s-60s.

But there were many argies with Italian parents/grandparents who played for Argentina like Tarantini, and Passarella, and (probably) Caniggia. Hey, I even heard that one of Maradona's grandparents was Italian! Imagine if he had decided to play for Italy?? The 1986 & 90 WCs would have been won by Italy!!

Supperpippo wrote:Yes, i forgot about Perrotta, born in England but with Italian parents! Amauri will be if he gets citizenship! In the Italy Under21 there is Giuseppe Rossi, american born!

I wish some of the Indians living abroad had not been similarly cup tied by their host countries.... Micheal Chopra and Vikas Dhoorasu could have reaaly helped India's cause in football!

Are Hargreaves parents English then or what?

Yes they are

so that would mean if Perrotta doesnt count then neither does Hargreaves?

IMO Hargreaves playing for England is the right decision. if he was playing for German.................................................

borocooper wrote:so that would mean if Perrotta doesnt count then neither does Hargreaves?

I don't know what these idiots who claim the German and French teams aren't in fact German/French are suggesting – whom are they actually thinking of? Klose and Poldi are entirely "eingedeutscht" and have been since they were small children: don't know why – apart from wind-up purposes – this dead horse is still being flogged; as for the French, are there people here genuinely suggesting Titi, Zizou (both born in France), Desailly, Vieira and god knows who else are somehow not French?! Perhaps because of their African origins? I'm a pretty tolerant guy but sounds like borderline racism to me... perhaps you should say it to their faces. Seem among the proudest Frenchmen to me.

One person who hasn't been mentioned is the legend that is Oliver Neuville – brought up in the Italian part of Switzerland to an Italian mother and a German father (I think), he could hardly speak any German when he first came into the Nationalmannschaft circle and needed an interpreter. These questions of nationality can be less clear-cut than some people on here seem to be suggesting...

plus Christian Vieri's an Australian isn't he? But went for glory...

Vieri's dad is Italian... for him it was a choice between playing cricket for Australia or football for Italy! But look at the Australian team... Grella, Bresciano, Aliosi (whatever his name is) they are also from Italian decent! And there are 7 Croatians in the australian team and 5 Australians in the Croatian team, something ridiculous like that!

ricardojol wrote:Doel: Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax), Henk Timmer (Feyenoord) en Sander Boschker (FC Twente)

Verdediging: Urby Emanuelson en John Heitinga (beiden Ajax), Tim de Cler, Kew Jaliens en Barry Opdam (allen AZ), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Barcelona), André Ooijer (Blackburn Rovers), Khalid Boulahrouz (Chelsea) en Joris Mathijsen (HSV)

Middenveld: Hedwiges Maduro en Wesley Sneijder (beiden Ajax), David Mendes da Silva, Stijn Schaars en Demy de Zeeuw (allen AZ), Evander Sno (Celtic), Ibrahim Afellay (PSV), Rafael van der Vaart (HSV) en Denny Landzaat (Wigan Athletic)

Aanval: Ryan Babel en Klaas Jan Huntelaar (beiden Ajax), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Danny Koevermans (AZ), Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Celtic), Arjen Robben (Chelsea) en Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool).

From this squad all our players were born in the Netherlands! So there is NO "Foreigner" in our team

I thought Gio had Indonesian blood.

@ allez

Neuville?
Asamoah?

Even David Odonkor if we count hargreaves...

Tweedledum wrote:@ allez

Neuville?
Asamoah?

Even David Odonkor if we count hargreaves...

And why Odonkor? He was born in Germany...

ok let's go for the french team :

Makélélé born in Zaire
Boumsong born somewhere in africa
Vieira born in Senegal

AND THAT'S ALL !! So please stop denigrate the french team...!

By opposition with countries like Holland (Kalou), Italy (Camoranesi) or Portugal (Deco), France has never tried to give the french nationality to a guy because he could be a good player for the national team ! All players got the french nationality during their childhood, simply because they were born in France or because they were young when they came in France.

To say that Zidane wasn't french it's like to say that Carl Lewis wasn't american. The only difference is that algerian immigration in France started at the begining of the 20th century whereas african immigration (or slavery) was 4 centuries ago.

Otherwise, there are a lot of french born players playing abroad. The most famous :
Kanouté, Sissoko,...

Ballmädchen wrote:

Tweedledum wrote:@ allez

Neuville?
Asamoah?

Even David Odonkor if we count hargreaves...

And why Odonkor? He was born in Germany...

Because he has a Ghanian parent.

Both Hargreaves parents are English

Not really answering my original question. Whether the player should play or not doesn't really matter, I would just like to know how many "foreign born" players are playing international football.
For instance, I thought that many more French players were born in Africa than Napolean had listed.
I thought that Italy had only 1.
And actually, how many play for Spain and Germany?