Football: Which nationality must national team players have?

Everybody remembers these images : In 2022 the french president Emmanuel Macron consoles the soccer star Kylian Mbappé after the World Cup defeat against Argentina. In 2010, during the World Cup in South Africa, the german chancellor Angela Merkel is partying with the german players in the changing room. The german newspaper Focus wrote :

« After the quarterfinal victory against Argentina, Merkel suddenly stood in front of Schweinsteiger, who was only dressed in a towel ».

How tightly must a national team player be connected with the country for which he plays, in order to be hugged by the president in good and in bad times ? The answer is different from what most fans would think at first sight.

Among the coaches of national teams are many foreigners

Already since many decades there are coaches of national teams that don’t have the citizenship of the respective country. Among them there are such that train as well the national team of their home country, and such, that only work for foreign national teams.

The following examples shall be mentioned :

The Romanian Stefan Kovacs (1920 – 1995) was the national team manager of France, from 1973 to 1975. Immediately afterwards he became national coach of his home country Romania for 5 years.

The Hungarian Ferenc Puskas (1927 – 2006) coached teams on several continents. From 1976 to 1977 he was the national team manager of Saudi-Araba, and in 1993 for Hungary. Later in this article there will be further infos about him.

The Austrian Ernst Happel (1925 – 1992) trained the dutch national team from 1977 to 1978. He too became chief of the national football team of his native country Austria, but died during this mission in 1992.

The German Berti Vogts (born in 1946) won the World Cup 1974 as a player. From 2001 on he worked as national team manager during 13 years and for various countries : Scotland, Kuwait, Nigeria, Azerbaijan. He did not became national coach for Germany.

The German Jürgen Klinsmann (*1964) won everything that can be won as a player. His track record as national team manager is impressive too : being in charge of the german national team he became third during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. From 2011 to 2016 he coached the national soccer team of the United States, and in 2023/ 2024 he was the main trainer of the national team of South Korea.

With the current UEFA European Championship 2024 foreign national coaches can be found too : Austria is led by the German Ralf Rangnick (*1958). The Belgians have the Italo-German Domenico Tedesco (*1985) as national team manager. Portugal’s coach is a Spaniard : Roberto Martinez (*1973). Georgia is headed by the French Willy Sagnol (*1977).

Given the fact, that national team managers can be foreigners, many ask the question : Does players of national teams absolutely have to hold the citizenship of the country they represent on the lawn ?

What makes you a citizen of a certain country ?

In the general comprehension a national citizen is imagined as a person that owns the citizenship of a particular country, and who has furthermore a strong connection with this country concerning its language, society, history, culture and economy.

But strictly speaking it is a person that has the citizenship – nonwithstanding any further close relation with the language, the people and the land.

It is possible, that a German, who will move abroad with his parents when he is a toddler, and who will not learn to speak German, may know less about Germany than a foreigner who settles down in Germany, who works there diligently, pays taxes and works voluntarily for a local association.

Foreigners who apply for a new citizenship must respond to several criteria, such as proven skills and knowlegde concerning the language, history, laws and culture of the respective country.

For rich foreigners the obtention of a new or additional citizenship is often easier, due to Golden Visa-Programs that exist in some countries.

Some european countries propose special citizenship programs for descendants of nationals that live in a particular country. Brazilians of italian descendance can apply for the italian citizenship. People with german ancestors that live in countries of the former Soviet Union can apply for the german citizenship. The football players Thiago Motta and Roman Neustädter, that are presented later in this article, have probably used such programs.

FIFA’s rules concerning the citizenship of football players

The FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) defines in its 96 page Statutes from 2022 as well the question of the « Eligibility to play for representative teams ».

Without surprise, players that hold the permanent nationality of a country are eligible to play for FIFA competitions (Page 73).

Players with dual citizenship can be eligible to play for a country, with which they have only little ties. According to the FIFA Statutes it is sufficient in this case, that a grandmother or a grandfather was born in the respective country (Page 74).

Especially interesting are the FIFA rules for stateless persons (page 76). Stateless persons are eligible to play for representative teams, if they have lived for at least 5 years in the respective country, and if they did not relocate to this country with the purpose of participating in the representative teams !

There are regularly successful FIFA national players that have a particular relation towards the country they represent.

Is it possible to change from one national team to another one ? Yes, this is possible under certain conditions, according to the FIFA Statutes (Chapter 9 Change of Association).

The reasons for such a change are diverse. Some players leave their native country for political reasons, others change the national team to boost their football career.

The already mentioned Ferenc Puskas (1927 – 2006) was a star of the hungarian national team from 1945 to 1956. Following the brutally oppressed hungarian uprising of 1956 by the Soviet Union, he left Hungary. In Spain he played during 8 years for Real Madrid. After the obtention of the spanish citizenship he got a call in Spain’s National Team too and dit 4 matches with it.

The next chapters features additional examples of atypical national players.

Atypical football players during the World Cup 2014

The World Cup 2014 in Brazil is not only remembered for great goals, but as well for interesting national team switches of some players.

Thiago Motta (*1982) realized 5 matches for the Under-23-Team of Brazil. Then the dual citizen of Brazil and Italy was a member of the italian national team, from 2011 to 2016. Motta played during 4 years in Italy, with Genua and Inter Mailand. With Inter Mailand he won the UEFA Champions League 2010.

For the Brazilian Diego Costa (*1988) already 2013 was an important year. At first, he made 2 matches with the Seleção brasileira. Then he got the additional spanish nationality.  Being a fresh Spaniard, Costa joined the national football team of Spain in 2014. However, in terms of national leagues he did not stay in sunny Spain, where he had dribbled for Atletico Madrid, but moved to the rainy United Kingdom, to join FC Chelsea.

Thus, during the 2014 Worldcup in Brazil, the two former brazilian national players Motta and Costa stood in national teams of other countries. But they did not have to play against their former employer. This fate had to be faced by the following international football star.

Kevin-Prince Boateng, the brother of Jérôme Boateng, was born in Berlin in 1987. He grew up in Berlin and did his school and football education there too. Boateng succeeded in joining the youth team of the national team of Germany, but was then excluded for questions of discipline. The dual citizen Kevin-Prince Boateng then joined the national team of Ghana, a country that he « only knew through the reports of his father », as is told by the german newspaper Tagesspiegel.

As well during the World Cup 2010 as during the World Cup 2014 memorable matches happened : Kevin-Prince did not only play against his brother, but as well against his former national team.

If Germany had met Ghana instead of Argentina in the final match of the 2014 World Cup, Kevin Prince could have beat the german team by a few  goals. In this case, there would have been a german end game scorer, but not the german team as World Cup winner. Such a scenario would have been possible according to the FIFA rules …

Atypical Players : A german Austrian and a « russian Beckenbauer » :

Less exotic than the destiny of Kevin-Prince Boateng, but nevertheless interesting, ist the case of Martin Harnik, born in 1987 in Hamburg, a son of a german mother and an austrian father. Harnik has done regular family visits, as the distance between Hamburg (Germany) and Graz (Austria) is only 800 kilometres. But as a club player he did not came more southward than Stuttgart, where he played for the VFB Stuttgart. He never worked for an austrian club.

According to the Stuttgarter Zeitung, he owns both the german and the austrian citizenship. Thus, from 2007 on, Harnik realized 68 matches for the austrian national team. The striker, who did 15 goals, reported winkingly in interviews, that his north-german dialect made him quite unique in comparison to his autochthonal austrian team mates, who all spoke austrian dialect.

Besides : The austrian citizenship law does not allow a dual citizenship, except in case of particular reasons.

The midfielder Roman Neustädter (*1988) – described by the journalist Richard Leipold as  « the modern Beckenbauer » – was a member of the german national soccer team until 2013. His father is from the Ukraine, his mother is from Russia. In 2016 Neustädter was awarded the russian nationality by Vladimir Putin. This allowed him to do 13 matches for the russian national team, from 2016 to 2021. Neustädter had played in Russia only for two years, from 2019 to 2021, with Dynamo Moscow. His other club stations were various german clubs and Fenerbahce Istanbul. Currently  (2024) he still plays for a club in the first domestic league of Belgium.

We will see if the « russian Beckenbauer « will become one day maybe the national team manager of Germany, as did the german Beckenbauer.  Besides : the german national team has not had a single foreign coach yet (until 2024) …

Further interesting content for you :

Expatriation Consulting with Leopold 

Blog article: News from Germany

Blog article : News from France   

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