heard on the radio today that carlo cudicini can now officially play for england. there was a fuss about it about 9mnths ago saying that he could, but he never has.

is it true? be cool if it was, he's one of the best keepers in the world!

well... he hasn't being called up by italy before so i guess he is still available if england call him up... he definitely better then david james...

yea i think he's fulfilled the required number of years of playing and living in england. and he hasn't played for italy yet, i believe. so if he chooses, he could be eligible to play for england.

That would be Fantastic!Although...he plays for Chelsea:( :p

yes but i thoght only english players r allowed to play for england,italian players r allowed to play for italy. wont it be a bit out of place if an italian player plays for england
i hope he does but erm.......

Originally posted by Ali the master
yes but i thoght only english players r allowed to play for england,italian players r allowed to play for italy. wont it be a bit out of place if an italian player plays for england
i hope he does but erm.......

there are loopholes where players can play for another country, if willing to commit to that national team. they'd have to fulfill certain requirements and rules. but there are loopholes, and there are many players that have gone this route.

Who??:o ;)

Most of the players that make up the French NT are African-born players that have aquired French citizenship.

If you've gained citizenship for a country, you are officially considered a member (couldn't think of any other word) of that country. Not just a resident.

Also, I think you automatically gain citizenship for the country that you were born in. Well that's how it works in Australia and Korea anyway, there might be exceptions though.

The mentioned French players are French citizens with French citizenships, it's just that their background is of an African nation.

In Cudicini's case, he must have applied for an English citizenship after fulfilling the minimum required years of having living in England as a permanent resident.

Some examples of player naturalisations:

France:

Zinedine Zidane (Algeria)
David Trezeguet (Argentina)
Patrick Vieira (Cape Verde Islands)
Marcel Desailly (Ghana)
Robert Pires (Portugal)
Jean-Alain Boumsong (Cameroon)


Portugal:

Deco (Brazil)
Ariza Makukula (DR Congo)


Italy:

Mauro Camoranesi (Argentina)


Germany:

Paulo Rink (Brazil)
Kevin Kuraniy (Brazil)
Gerald Asamoah (Ghana)
Miroslav Klose (Poland)


Poland:

Emmanuel Olisadebe (Nigeria)


Jamaica:

Deon Burton (England)
Robbie Earl (England)


England:

Owen Hargreaves (Canada)


USA:

Freddie Adu (Ghana)


Spain:

Catanha (Brazil)


Cameroon:

Valerie Mézague (France)

WHOA that list is scary! i knew zizou was algerian, bu WTF? Trezegeut argentinian and pires portuguese!?

Originally posted by 3m1n3m
France:
Zinedine Zidane (Algeria)
David Trezeguet (Argentina)
Patrick Vieira (Cape Verde Islands)
Marcel Desailly (Ghana)
Robert Pires (Portugal)
Jean-Alain Boumsong (Cameroon)

Portugal:
Deco (Brazil)
Ariza Makukula (DR Congo)

Italy:
Mauro Camoranesi (Argentina)

Germany:
Paulo Rink (Brazil)
Kevin Kuraniy (Brazil)
Gerald Asamoah (Ghana)
Miroslav Klose (Poland)

Poland:
Emmanuel Olisadebe (Nigeria)

Jamaica:
Deon Burton (England)
Robbie Earl (England)

England:
Owen Hargreaves (Canada)

USA:
Freddie Adu (Ghana)

Spain:
Catanha (Brazil)

Cameroon:
Valerie Mézague (France)

i believe zidane was born in france. we've had these threads a lot. pires is half portuguese and half spanish, but he was born in france. trezeguet's parents from argentinian but he was born in france and moved to argentina when he was a young boy and moved back to france to play football.

i believe hargreaves was born in canada but his father was from england, thus allowing him to play for england. he was also eligible for wales, as his mother was from wales, and he was also eligible for germany due to residential rights.

it's different case for these players than like camoranesi, deco (?), olisadebe, or cudicini (if he opts to) as they're just following fifa regulations to play for another country. as mentioned before, many of the other players born in other countries like the french players have come to france as young children or are from colonies of the same country. nothing wrong with any of them, really.

Originally posted by Jedi Mind Trick
i believe zidane was born in france. we've had these threads a lot. pires is half portuguese and half spanish, but he was born in france. trezeguet's parents from argentinian but he was born in france and moved to argentina when he was a young boy and moved back to france to play football.

i believe hargreaves was born in canada but his father was from england, thus allowing him to play for england. he was also eligible for wales, as his mother was from wales, and he was also eligible for germany due to residential rights.

it's different case for these players than like camoranesi, deco (?), olisadebe, or cudicini (if he opts to) as they're just following fifa regulations to play for another country. as mentioned before, many of the other players born in other countries like the french players have come to france as young children or are from colonies of the same country. nothing wrong with any of them, really.

Hargreaves was eligible to play for England because his dad was English. Hargreaves was born and raised in Canada. There are a lot of players who were born in one country but play for another due to a parent being from that country.

Jeff Agoos for USA is Swiss-born.

So it happened there aswell.

Originally posted by USA Supporter
Hargreaves was eligible to play for England because his dad was English. Hargreaves was born and raised in Canada.

that's what i said.

Originally posted by USA Supporter
Hargreaves was eligible to play for England because his dad was English. Hargreaves was born and raised in Canada. There are a lot of players who were born in one country but play for another due to a parent being from that country.

Actually.. I believe Camoranesi has an Italian background whether it was his grandfather or something.

ya Camoranesi's grandmother or grandfather is Italian, obvious from his last name anyways. :p

Zidane was born in France, his parents are from Algeria tho.

james is doing well at the moment so dont winge about him being worse then cudicini. just because he plays in first didvision means nothing he is doiing well for england and west ham at the moment!!!

pires portuguese!?

Pires' father is from Minho, northern region of Portugal. His mother is from Spain. Robert speaks fluent portuguese. In Portugal he would like to play for Benfica, the portuguese club he most follows, mostly because of his cousin. He also stated he would like to face FC Porto in Das Antas for the Champions League (but looks like he won't accomplish that, maybe in the new Estádio do Dragão).

I'm glad he still remembers his roots, shows signs of being a very humble individual. Shame our FA missed out on securing him right on the youth ranks. If he had come to Portugal 10 years ago, thing would be different; when he was starting at Metz, summer of 1993, Benfica contacted him to replace departing João Pinto who was about to join Paulo Sousa and Pacheco leaving the Estádio da Luz for Sporting.

But about the subject of the thread, to get the English citizenship, Cudicini has got to live in England for 5 years. So, if he arrived in 1999 from Castel di Sangro (with 99/00 season already ongoing), he'll only be eligible for Sven Goran-Eriksson AFTER the EURO 2004. He was already called-up for the Italian NT. Once. But he didn't come off the bench, so he's still available to play for another country.

There was a case of a player, Dries Boussatta from AZ, now at a Nationwide Division 1 club, had 2 caps from Holland (back to the times when Frank Rijkaard was the coach) but they were made on friendly matches, so he put a process in FIFA so he could turn them null to play for Morocco. And he got just that.

That list created some surprises for me since I didn't know that Pires didn't have French parents or that Viera is from Cape Verde since I have tons of friends from there :o

I think Cudicini has been reported in saying that he is flattered with the claim but wants to play for the Italian national team....

technically he could play for England but I don't think he's heart is there....

Who cares there's always David James :hump: :hump:

actually Carlos Queiroz(the portuguese coach at the time) was scouting patrick Viera and robert Pires so they could be called up and play for Portugal. Unfortunately the idiot though that they idn;t have ebough talent to play for the "mighty" portuguese national team. What a retard, they are just like the two best midfielders in the world. to think we could of had Viera and Pires on our national team. What a bummer!

Cudicini should play for England. I don't see Trap calling him up and putting him ahead of Buffon or Toldo. He'd probably be 3rd choice. (:/) It just looks really tough for him to get playing time for Italy. He'd have some pretty tough competition to become 1st choice.

Gudicini would really be something to boost up Englands chances of winning something in the next 5 years..

simone perrotta was born in england i think..

Originally posted by ManU2000
Cudicini should play for England. I don't see Trap calling him up and putting him ahead of Buffon or Toldo. He'd probably be 3rd choice. (:/) It just looks really tough for him to get playing time for Italy. He'd have some pretty tough competition to become 1st choice. and there's abbiati too.. altho he doesn't get much play time with milan, he's still a good keeper.. hell almost all of the italian keepers are class..