Tyrone Mears wants to renege on Jamaica in order to hold out for an England call-up – good luck with that, Tyrone – while Hearts’ Andrew Driver recently pulled out of Scotland’s U21s squad due to his indecision over whether to pledge his international future to the Tartan Army or his native England. Meanwhile, Werder Bremen forward Aaron Hunt this week tied himself to Germany despite a plea from his own mother to make himself available to England. What with all these dual nationality goings on, Sport.co.uk thought the time might be right to do some kind of Top Ten about it…
1. Owen Hargreaves – Born in Canada to a Welsh mother and English father, the eternally-sidelined Manchester United midfielder further complicated matters by gaining German citizenship while breaking through at Bayern Munich. He was set to make his debut for Wales U-21s in 2000 before pulling out at the last minute, expressing his desire to one day represent England. Which, happily for him, eventually paid off.
2. Ryan Giggs – The Manchester United winger, whose perennial availability makes him perhaps the polar opposite of Hargreaves, represented England at schoolboy level using the name Ryan Wilson. In the end, he opted for the country of his berth, condemning millions of England fans to thoughts of “what if?”. Giggs’ paternal grandfather was from Sierra Leone but it’s safe to say that they never really stood a chance.
3. Zinedine Zidane – Imagine if Zizou had chosen to play for Algeria rather than France. Could he have led them to the World Cup finals? Perhaps even won it for them? Ok, that’s a ridiculous notion. But one thing it would have done is save Marco Materazzi’s ribs from some nasty bruising.
4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Although he was born in and went on to play for Sweden, the Barcelona new boy was born to a Croatian father and a Bosnian mother. Unlucky, Bosnia. But at least Croatia got…
5. Eduardo Alves da Silva - …Arsenal striker Eduardo, who was born in Rio de Janeiro but gained Croatian nationality while starting his career at Dinamo Zagreb, where he scored a stunning 83 goals in 111 appearances. Factor in the 16 in 27 he’s scored for his adopted country and Brazil can feel slightly aggrieved at letting him slip through the net. You’re not alone, Bosnia.
6. Philipe Senderos – Arsenal’s forgotten centre-back is a veritable melting pot of cultures. Although he has played his international football for his native Switzerland, he was also eligible to play for Serbia and Spain, while he can also claim to speak six languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese). No wonder he always looks so confused.
7. Danny Cadamarteri – Having become a household name (at least to those who could pronounce it) after scoring a wonder goal for Everton in the Merseyside derby, the issue of Cadamarteri’s international career became big news. Touted as Everton’s answer to Michael Owen, the dreadlocked speed merchant had to choose between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Nigeria - and, figuring like we all did that his rise to stardom was a given, he plumped for England. He was capped three times at U21 level but, in the end, he never even got close to a full cap. Now at Dundee United after spells at…all sorts, frankly.
8. Giuseppe Rossi – The former Manchester United and current Villarreal striker was born in New Jersey, United States, but made the easy choice (in terms of international standing and length of commute, you see) of playing for Italy, the country of his descent which you could probably guess by his name. He has scored 3 times in 12 appearances for the Azzurri.
9. Ferenc Puskas – Yes, dear readers, we’re mentioning Ferenc Puskas in the same space as Danny Cadamarteri and Philippe Senderos. Because that takes balls. Just like Puskas used to take balls before despatching them into a net, which he did a staggering 84 times in 85 games for Hungary between 1945 and 1956. He then gained Spanish citizenship during eight years at Real Madrid, going on to play 4 times for Spain without scoring.
10. Alfredo di Stefano – Bolstering the strong, sepia-tinted ending to this Top Ten comes another indisputable legend of the game, but one whose dalliances with international teams cast him as a player in more than one sense of the word. Six goals in six games for his native Argentina between 1947 and 1949 were followed by four goalless appearances for Colombia, before he also gained Spanish citizenship at Real Madrid, going on to score 23 goals in 31 games for Spain. What a dandy.