The FA come under fire as FIFA attack England World Cup bid... but clear Qatar!

[jazzypom]

Comments

[the4thjuliek]

What a great post! Those Argentinian kits are beautiful. As lovely as the NED away kit.

Nuri? Yeah, he was born and brought up in Germany but unlike Özil and Gündogan, chose to play for Turkey.

The Dutch player in the picture is Ricardo van Rhijn. Plays for Ajax. I'm not able to ID the Mexican. Hazard looks so tall in that picture with his Louis Vuitton (not Fendi) bag.

[jazzypom]

Adidas did well by Argentina with their kits, I'll say that. They are gorge and the Adidas stripes enhance rather than detract from the design.

Whoa, that's a Louis vuitton travel bag that doesn't look tacky? Props to him for finding one! Cheers for the ID on the dutch guy.

The Turks seem to hate their NT though. I remember on some other forums how they said that the NT lacks soul. I can't hate, considering the state of the English national team since 2002 *sad lulz*

[the4thjuliek]

Ah, the Turks are very critical, in general. The way they booed Özil and Gündo during the CL matches was just terrible. Still bitter about them choosing to play for Germany, after all these years.

b- but that makes no sense

[jazzypom]

If Özil and Gündoğan were born in Germany, came up through the German system, etc- why wouldn't they be capped for Germany (especially if they're good enough). Or that Munir lad - who Morocco wanted to play for them, even though he was born in Spain, came up through Barça's academies and seems to not have much of a tie to his parent (I think his mum is Spanish) homeland? That's like me expecting Raheem Sterling to play for Jamaica, even though he came to England when he was eight, and pretty much seems more English than Jamaican anyway.

That's why I'm surprised at Nuri playing for Turkey.

He's a good player, Brendan Rodgers was short sighted in letting him go.

Also, it's not even like the Algerian team who get love from their country men even though most of the team were born in France and came up through the French academies, the Turks just seem to have scorn for their NT. I'm sure there's good reason but... damn, Nuri.

RE: b- but that makes no sense

[ms_geekette]

That's why I'm surprised at Nuri playing for Turkey.

Maybe he thought he didn't have a great chance to be picked/stay a pick with Germany? Or maybe he was one of those players who will take the first NT call-up that they get, or for some other reason. Like the Bale playing for Wales over England situation.

Re: RE: b- but that makes no sense

[jazzypom]

I have a feeling that Bale wouldn't have played for England anyway, even if we'd tapped him up first. He's always been Welsh through and through (even though he doesn't speak the language). Yeah, I can understand that- I think that's why Kevin Prince Boateng plumped for Ghana.

Well, if Nur''s happy, I'm happy for him. On a shallow note, he's cute.

RE: Re: RE: b- but that makes no sense

[ms_geekette]

Well, Bale probably would have a ~theoretical better shot to get further in the Euros/World Cup if he was with England. Some players do want to "go all the way." But I think the main thing is that England apparently asked him via his agent, rather than asking him personally. But maybe he just wanted to play for Wales anyway and cited that so people wouldn't give him as much grief about it since Southampton trained him. I dunno. It was a tenuous connection to England via his one of his grandmothers or something like that, anyway.

nah, Bale qualified by residency

[jazzypom]

He came through the Southampton football academy, lived in England for about eight years before going to Real Madrid. You're allowed five years residency before you can apply for citizenship, but that's cut down to three if you can show ties (via grandparents or marriage). Lionel Messi's name was spelt wrongly when Argentina first came to him, but Bale was always close to his Welsh side. Every time he had down time, he'd be at his mum's house, that sort of thing.

Also, Wales do have clubs (Swansea and Cardiff) in the English leagues, so there's no aggro between Wales and England than say... Scotland and England! Ryan Giggs played for Manchester United and represented Wales and no one gave him grief, iirc.

I'm glad that Ramsey, Allen and himself have chosen to represent Wales. They're all right.

RE: nah, Bale qualified by residency

[ms_geekette]

Heh, I just figured that Bale would get some grief for not playing for England since they could use him. ;-D But since you say that most of the English are down about the NT these days, maybe it's less of a concern.

Turkey seems to be a bit extra about it all, though. I imagine the Turkish NT's morale is pretty frightful. (I saw the game they played against the Czech Republic, IIRC, in the last few months and they definitely were not playing very well as a team.)

Re: RE: nah, Bale qualified by residency

[jazzypom]

Heh, I just figured that Bale would get some grief for not playing for England since they could use himI get you, but because when Bale blew up (at Spurs) he'd already been committed to representing Wales. I guess it's more of an "What could have been, but good luck to ya," with Bale rather than, "You came to Southampton and England gave you everything and then you turned your back on us and decided to represent the sheep shaggers

RE: Re: RE: nah, Bale qualified by residency

[ms_geekette]

Well, I salute the English for not being jerks about it, then.

RE: b- but that makes no sense

[aquaecolore]

Nuri's been playing for Turkey since 2003 (for the under-16s; and since 2005 'properly').. maybe Germany didn't want him back then. idk.

RE: b- but that makes no sense

[jazzypom]

Oh, okay! I think in Fifa you're allowed to change your nationalities once. So coming up in youth leagues wouldn't necessarily have risked his German chances if he'd wanted to switch if he were an adult, that sort of thing. But yeah, if he likes it, I love it, that sort of thing. I only know Nuri via Liverpool and then Dortmund, I just assumed that he was a German player with German interests. My bad!

RE: b- but that makes no sense

[marsyke]

I think that the rule is now that once you've played an official match for one country at the A level that you can't switch anymore. But as long as you've played only at youth level or in friendlies, you can change your country.

Chadli for example played 1 friendly for Morocco but opted the play for Belgium after. Kevin-Prince Boateng played several matches for Germany at youth level before switching to Ghana. And there is Costa

RE: b- but that makes no sense

[ms_geekette]

It seems like it would be tough to get into Germany's NT system (the competition seems super fierce), so I don't blame the guy for going for the potentially "safer" bet. He probably just wanted to play.

RE: b- but that makes no sense

[ndobler]

What aquaecolore said. Plus he does seem to, at least somewhat, identify himself as turkish, since he posts personal stuff on twitter/instagram mostly in turkish, and only posts in german when it comes to bvb related stuff.

But on more urgent matters, his face has been looking kinda bloated ever since he got injured for the 362th time and it's a shame because he's cute indeed lol.