International Men of Mystery

Vladimir Koman

In case you did not notice but this Tuesday and Wednesday there will be a number of friendly soccer matches between national teams, Hungary vs Bulgaria, Italy vs U.S.A., Spain vs Venezuela just to name a few. Lets take a deeper look at some of the players that are expected to play in these matches. Hungary will probably have 22 year old midfielder Vladimir Koman playing on the left side of the midfield. If you are not familer with the Hungarian language of with Hungarian names Vladimir is not exactly a common name found in the country that is in the middle of the Carpathian basin, the last name Koman could be Hungarian but that isn’t either, Vladimir was born in Ungvár which is in modern day Ukraine, to Ukrainian parents. The Koman family moved to Szombathely when the father Volodymyr was signed by Haladás in the Hungarian 1^st division. Koman grew up in Hungary and probably speaks better Hungarian then me.

Fabian Johnson

Let us take a look at another player, Fabian Johnson, Johnson is a 22 year old midfielder who is trying to gain a foothold in the U.S. squad. Now you might think what the big deal with Fabian is, his name seems to be American? Well Fabian Johnson was born in Munich, which of course is in Germany, to an American service man and a German woman. Johnson grew up in Germany and played for all the youth teams from u19-u21 but never for the Germany national team. Now one can argue that Johnson should not be selected for the U.S. team because he was not born and raised in the U.S. The way I figure the goal of every national team coach is to put the best team possible 11 players out there to win, then again you can also go over the top with it like the Italian national team did with Mauro Camoranesi who’s was born in Argentina, his grandfather was born in Italy. Camoranesi not only didn’t know the words to the Italian national anthem (one of my favorite anthems of all time) but barley spoke Italian. A couple years back the FIFA made a ruling that one squad switch the nation they played for as long as they never played in FIFA sanctioned event, basically if you only played in friendlies for your country and you felt that you were not getting the respect that you deserved you could switch to a country from where you also had a passport from. Because of this change the U.S. was able to get Jermaine Jones into their squad, Jones played three matches for the German national team and since 2010 played in 15 for the U.S. (he will not be playing vs. Italy because of an injury). Some Americans such as “The Professor” Jim Luby says that Giuseppe Rossi should be playing for the U.S. because he left America when he was 15. “The Professor” says that the U.S. should be choosing players that were not necessarily born in the U.S. but grew up in the American soccer system, this isn’t the 1980s or 1990s where the U.S. national team has to bring in foreign players because there is no one even close to playing a particular position at a professional level in the country. In the 90s the U.S. national team had players such as Thomas Dooley (similar situation as Jones and Johnson, military dad German mother), Prek (Yugoslavia), Earnie Stewart (Netherlands), Roy Wegerle (South Africa) and Fernando Clavijo (Uruguay).

Tiago Motta

The United States is not the only national team that has “nationalized” players who grew up in other countries, the English national team in the 2000’s had Owen Hargraves who was born and raised on Canada and the lived in Germany when he played for Bayern Munich, but I guess he was a subject of Queen Elizabeth II, Tiago Motta was born in Brazil and then moved to Spain when he was 17 and even played two matches for the Brazilian national team, he will be dressing today for Italy vs. the U.S., Pablo Osvaldo was born in Argentina and moved to Italy when he was 20 and has played in two matches for the Azzurri.

The “situation” with the Portuguese national team is similar to Italy’s. The defender Pepe was born in Brazil and moved to Portugal when he signed with Martimo at the age of 18, Danny was born in Venezuela, and the legendary midfielder Deco is also from Brazil, there are a number of players from Cape Verde such as Nani but Cape Verde was a colony of Portugal until only recently.

            The French national team on the other hand is a bit different, they have a number of players not born in France but in former French colonies and they either moved with their parents at a young age or when they were adults because of football. Goalkeeper Steve Mandanda was born in Zaire, and Patrice Evra Senegal (son of a diplomat).

Podolski and Klose

            The German national team I think is straight up funny, the Portugies and French teams get “import” players from their former colonies and the Italians mostly from Argentina, where a lot of Italians emigrated to. Before Thomas Müller came onto the scene I would always ask Germans if they could name at least one truly German striker on the national team, they of course would respond with either Lukasz Podolski or Miroslav Klose, Both Klose and Podolski were born in Poland and speak Polish to each other when they are on the pitch together. Next the German would say some one such as Gerald Asamoah (Ghana), Kevin Kuranyi (who’s father was born in France to Hungarian parents, mother from Panama, Kevin was born in Brazil), Mario Gomez (yes he was born in Germany but either way Gomez is not a true German name), or Oliver Neuville (Switzerland) they would most of the time have to go back to Oliver Bierhoff. Current German striker Cacau was born in Brazil.

            I am not saying that you should be able to get anyone you want to put your national team in a better position, but if you are not breaking the rules then try to find the best players possible. I would be also ok with players being selected that were brought up in that nations system.