I want to introduce you Mehmet Aurelio

[CapaJr]

this has never happened in our country before, he is a first, and a real good player too.
Marco Aurélio full name Marco Aurélio Brito dos Prazeres, he also took a Tukish name: Mehmet Aurélio (born December 15, 1977 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Turkish football player of Brazilian descent. He is a midfielder currently playing for Fenerbahçe. He recently acquired Turkish citizenship and adopted the name Mehmet

What do you guys think about stuff like this? i know its always been done around Europe for a while, but generally speaking,
would you want an ex-foreigner playing for your nation?

 

[$teauA]

If he's good why not?

 

[diroix]

He played really well today

 

[Zlatan]

Why is he beeing fotographed in a bedroom?

He looks like Vieira BTW.

Here in Holland, we had Kalou trying to get a Dutch passport but the poor fellow got denied over and over again by our minister of immigration.

 

[diroix]

Why is he beeing fotographed in a bedroom?

I think this photo is from NT camp

 

[cus]

Why is he beeing fotographed in a bedroom?

He looks like Vieira BTW.

Here in Holland, we had Kalou trying to get a Dutch passport but the poor fellow got denied over and over again by our minister of immigration.

which kalou is that?? I thought both bonaventure and salomon are playing for their home country, Ghana (or Ivory Coast, not sure)..

 

[Bonzi]

which kalou is that?? I thought both bonaventure and salomon are playing for their home country, Ghana (or Ivory Coast, not sure)..

Salomon Kalou

There are rumours that Brazilian defender Geder (Spartak Moscow) wants to play for Russia.

 

[d3adly]

he should get more international games with turkey. so yeh why not?

 

[rony31]

he looks like Vieira


edit: just saw Zlatan beat me to it

 

[phrase]

The word on Salomon Kalou is that,he has been denied over and over again by the immigration people.Even Johan Cruyff leaded the party to beg the immigration department to allow Kalou,dutch citizenship in an attempt to make it in time for the 2006 WC.He was denied and now wants to play with his native country with his brother.

 

[d3adly]

ey, what's holland's loss is ivory coast's gain.

 

[Aarfy Aardvark]

Speaking of naturalised players...

Andre Ladaga - Azerbaijan
Leandro Gomes - Azerbaijan
Ernani Pereira - Azerbaijan
Lucio Wagner - Bulgaria
Zoran Janković - Bulgaria
Eduardo da Silva - Croatia
Rio Antonio Mavuba - France
Roberto Colautti - Israel
Toto Adurans Tamuz Temile - Israel
Mariano Pernía - Spain

All played in euro 2008 qualies, some have even scored.

 

[Aarfy Aardvark]

Salomon Kalou

There are rumours that Brazilian defender Geder (Spartak Moscow) wants to play for Russia.

Under the current situation they need all the help they can get.

I'm actually quite surprised thast Russia has resisted the urge to play naturalised players for this long...

 

[Guillaume]

In France, there are some players who were not born in France. Rio Mavuba is from Angola, Patrick Vieira and Patrice Evra are from Senegal, Jean-Alain Boumsong is from Cameroon, Peguy Luyindula and Claude Makélélé are from RD Congo. Marcel Desailly was born in Ghana. David Trezeguet was born in France but he has roots from Argentina. There are players with African roots as Djibril Cissé and Olivier Kapo (Ivory Coast). And many players from West Indies, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane as Thierry Henry, William Gallas, Lilian Thuram, Sylvain Wiltord, Eric Abidal, Louis Saha, Nicolas Anelka or Florent Malouda.

New French generation is more from Maghreb like Samir Nasri (Algeria), Karim Benzema (Morocco), Hatem Ben Arfa (Tunisia). But they were born in France so they are French. I've heard France has foreign players etc but most of them grew up in France, they were in French football schools...
Best French players ever had foreign roots: Larbi Ben Barek (Algeria), Raymond Kopa (Poland), Michel Patini (Italy), Zinedine Zidane (Ageria) so it's a great richness for us.

And a lot of French players with foreign roots are playing for African teams: Abdou Meïté and Emerse Faé (Ivory Coast), Habib Beye and Sylvain N'Diaye (Senegal), Karim Ziani (Algeria), Frederic Kanouté and Mohamed Sissoko (Mali).. So this benefit works in the 2 ways.

But to answer you, if a player really wants to play for his new country as Olisadebe with Poland, Tamuz with Israël, Marcos Senna with Spain, Asamoah with Germany, some brazilian players in Estern Europe teams, it's good for the 2 sides. They just have to be accepted by supporters.
Turkey is doing a great job all over Europe to keep their young players even if they aren't playing in Turkish Championship. Nuri Sahin, Hamit and Halil Altintop...

 

[Juventino]

Camoranesi is a born Argentinian, but he has Italian roots which made him eligible to play for Italy. Somewhere in 2003 Trappatoni asked him first to play for Italy, and he agreed. But still Camoranesi says: "I'm not a traitor, I still feel 100% Argentine and have done nothing to find myself in this situation. It's only a football matter, nothing else". He doesnt sing the Italian anthem either.

 

[Bonzi]

I'm actually quite surprised thast Russia has resisted the urge to play naturalised players for this long...

Nothing surprising. Whom could we naturalise? All the good players (better than our internationals) are "spoiled" by playing for their national teams and naturalising of players, who are not better is pointless.

 

[Aarfy Aardvark]

Nothing surprising. Whom could we naturalise? All the good players (better than our internationals) are "spoiled" by playing for their national teams and naturalising of players, who are not better is pointless.

You know back in the day, I remember one Russian sports journalist commenting that Russia could do with a Russian 'Robson' - who at the time was destroying most teams in Russia with Spartak Moscow.

Before Fifa's daft rules and the engagement of foreign powers to let any sod become a national of that country - that idea of the Russian Robson was probably not such a ridiculous idea at that time (although I imagine the guy in question wasn't alluding to naturalising him.)

In regards to who Russia can cap - I take your point.

 

[CapaJr]

I personally think its a great idea, and if it does benefit the NT, why not?
Aurelio could be brazilian , but i have known him well enough now, he played for Turkish clubs for quite sometime, and i can easily say he is a better person than most other turks i ve met on regular basis. So, i now that he carries our passport, he is my brother, a Brazilian-Turk, wow, that never happened before, an interesting mix :funny: :funny:

 

[Kulixs]

I personally think it is good when used properly. But when a player just goes and plays for a national team because they aren't good enough to play for their first choice, I dont like that. E.G I think Deco playing for Portugal even though he has Brasilian blood is a good one. But players should only play for a country if that country is truly in their heart, how Camoranesi says he is Argentinean and won't sing the national anthem, its a disgrace. Thats what playing for your country is all about, not just because it gives you a chance to play for a country. Like all these African/French immigrants now, if they are good enough, they play for France, if not they play for second choice African country. I went through all the French players on wikipedia, and the amount that are originally from a African/other country is beyond belief.

 

[Bummy_JaB]

I think the rule should be 10 yrs or more living in the country. For example if Camoranesi wants to play for Italy he should have proof that he has been living there for 10 yrs or more. Too many Brazilians playing for Japan, Croatia, Turkey, etc, etc. If thats what they want than they might as well call it CLUB football because thats what it is becoming.

I also heard that a lot of the players from the Ecuadorian national team are Colombian.