Declan Rice

[Vinnie]

10 hours ago, Teuchter said:

Marseille born Zidane was playing for the wrong country? 

Youll note I said his parents are Algerian? And that the determining factor of nationality can be disputed between country of birth and parental nationality... so yes, potentially, Marseilles born Zidane could have played for the wrong country. Could. Maybe. Depending on how you want to look at it.

[Teuchter]

2 hours ago, Vinnie said:

Youll note I said his parents are Algerian? And that the determining factor of nationality can be disputed between country of birth and parental nationality... so yes, potentially, Marseilles born Zidane could have played for the wrong country. Could. Maybe. Depending on how you want to look at it.

The reason that I asked was that it read like it was your own opinion that he played for the wrong country - it looked like the maybe at the end applied only to the potential benefits for Algeria.

Applying a strict rule like that for footballers would have a lot of negative implications about how a society views immigrants in my opinion (i.e. not one of "us" despite having been born in, and not known another, country). It also plays into the hands of the fanatics on the other side of the spectrum who reject assimilation.

In football terms, I am not sure if there are disputes between what determines nationality as opposed to that players have a choice of which definition to use. I would only apply rules regarding continuity of commitment, once made, as opposed to rigidly sticking to rules one way or the other for determining nationality. There is obviously a fair bit of opportunism at play when some choices are made, but not sure if it constitutes a huge issue.

It used to be place of birth for the home countries until the late 60s for Scotland, which meant Hibs's Joe Baker had no choice but to play for England despite sounding even more Scottish than Aidan McGeady. 

By contrast Real Madrid legends Di Stefano and Puskas played for multiple countries based on citizenship.