We have seen the likes of Qatar naturalise players from Brazil, Uruguay and Senegal in order to provide their national team. New Zealand may be about to follow their lead with Daniel recently gaining citizenship.
With the quality of the imports this season, the Socceroos could certainly benefit from following this approach. Particularly for an A-League based squad, the likes of Cassio and Cristiano would be in serious contention for selection if they were eligible. The question is whether we want to adopt such a practise given that we have been critical of other nations that have imported ‘mercenaries’.
The striking department is one which the current ‘foreigners’ could really be pushing the likes of Kennedy and MacDonald given that no one has really cemented their spot. The likes of Matt Simons and Nikita Rukavytsya also have legitimate claims for selection. However, the striker from the A-League who would most suit Pim’s preferred style of play is probably not surprisingly a Dutchman.
Sergio van Dyke isn’t as physically imposing as Simons or as fast as Rukavytsya. However, he is technically better than above the Australians and has greater ability to holdup the ball or linkup with his supporting midfield cast. For the majority of this season, he has been deployed as the lone striker so we know he can play this role in Pim’s usual formation of 4-5-1.
Of course, this argument is completely academic since van Dyke won’t be eligible for quite some time, if ever. But it does raise interesting issues about whether foreigners may have an even greater role to play in Australian football.
4 Comments
December 23, 2008 at 11:05 am
In my opinion players should not be fast-tracked to citizenship for the purpose of playing for the national team (as is the case in some countries). By all means, if a player has lived and played in Australia for a number of years, and obtains citizenship, then as an Australian citizen he should have the same opportunity as any other Australian to be picked for the national team.
I do think that it would be a good move if FIFA imposed a minimum period of citizenship / residency before a player is eligible to represent their new country, though, much as Jonas Salley was ineligible to play in the ACL because his Australian citizenship was only granted recently. This would make it more difficult for countries to benefit from fielding ‘mercenaries’.
January 12, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Hopefully we have a few other options before Van Dijk. His like coming to Oz is a growing sign of the respectability of the A-League. Plus he could play for Malaysia (and perhaps he intends to).
March 5, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Hi mate,
I’d like to contact you but I can’t find any email address on your blog. Could you please email me on gosoccerooos@gmail.com?
Ta
April 2, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Some good posts on here but hey, if you’re gonna host a blog, make ‘em more frequent.