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Alfredo Di Stefano is among the high profile players to have changed their nationalitiesThe practice of professional footballers changing their nationality (in most cases from their nation of birth) to play international football has been in action for many decades now.
For example, the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano played six times for Argentina, his nation of birth, before representing his adopted nation, Spain, 31 times. He was able to play for Spain after he acquired Spanish citizenship even though he had already represented Argentina in official games.
But according to current FIFA rules, such a change can happen only if the player has not represented any country in their senior team’s official matches.
Another famous example is that of former Barcelona player Deco, who was Brazilian by birth but acquired Portuguese citizenship following six years of stay in the country. Interestingly his first game for Portugal was against Brazil when he came on as a substitute and scored the winner.
There are other cases where players represented the country of their origin even though they held the passport of another country and had played for that country’s youth teams. A perfect example is the case of Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic.
Honourable Mentions: Marcos Senna (Brazil to Spain) and Marko Marin (Bosnia and Herzegovina to Germany)
#1 Diego Costa (Brazil to Spain)
Chelsea’s Diego Costa is a Brazilian by birth, but the forward was called up only once for the senior team. Since Brazil were the World Cup hosts in 2014, they didn’t have to play any qualifying matches, which meant that when other countries were participating in qualifying matches, they were playing friendlies. Therefore, when Costa represented Brazil twice, both were in friendlies.
This meant that Costa was eligible to represent Spain once he acquired a Spanish passport as he had not played in official FIFA games for Brazil. Costa acquired Spanish Citizenship in 2013 after living in Spain for over six years while plying his trade there.
Following this, the Spanish Football Federation made a request to FIFA to allow Costa to represent Spain and, once the player sent a request to the Brazil Football Federation, the then Brazil manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, said that Costa was turning his back on his nation.
In February 2014, Costa represented Spain’s national team for the first time. Losing Costa to Spain was a big blow for Brazil as there is no doubt about his ability as a striker and his position is one where Brazil are currently in need of a good player.
#2 Lukas Podolski (Poland to Germany)
Lukas Podolski was born to Waldemar Podolski and Krystyna Podolski in the industrial town of Gliwice, Poland. In 1987, when Podolski was two years old, his parents emigrated from Poland to West Germany and were given the right of return status because his paternal grandparents held German citizenship prior to World War II.
In 2003, after several impressive performances in the Bundesliga, the Polish media suggested to the then Polish national team coach, Pawel Janas, that he pick Podolski for the team as he had only represented Germany at the youth levels then.
Janas ignored the request and stated that there were much better strikers in Poland then as Podolski was not even a regular at club level. This happened when Podolski was open to representing Poland. Within a year, Podolski’s true potential came out and the German media were keen on getting the player to represent the country and on 6 June 2004, at the age of 19, he played for Germany.
In an interview, Podolski once claimed that the Polish Football Federation never cared about him until he started playing for Germany's U-21 team and received media coverage, but he had already made up his mind by then.
Anyway, choosing Germany over Poland is not a decision Podolski would be regretting much, as he is now a World Cup winner with the Germans.
#3 Neven Subotic (USA to Serbia)
Neven Subotic’s case is different from the other names on the list for several reasons, but his name has to be on the list because of how things panned out. Subotic was born when Yugoslavia was still a country and based on ancestry, he was eligible to represent both Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Due to the Bosnian war, Subotic’s family had moved to Germany initially, but when their residence authorization in Germany expired in 1999, they moved to the United States.
He spent several years there playing for different sides before he was approached by Mainz in Germany in 2006. By this time, he had already represented USA at the 2005 U-17 World Championship and in 2006 made two appearances for their U-20 team.
At this stage, it looked like Subotic was going to represent the American team in the future, but a mistake by the head coach Thomas Rongen forced Subotic to reconsider his international future. Rongen publically criticized Subotic initially and later opted against picking him for the U-20 World Championship in 2007.
Subotic rejected advances from Bosnia & Herzegovina and by the end of 2008, he had notified the US officials that he had decided to represent Serbia in the future.
Even after the entire ruckus that was caused due to this issue, Subotic is now no longer part of the Serbia team. He was first benched in favour of other players even though he was in good form at club level and later the coaches stopped calling him up to the squad altogether.
#4 Pepe (Brazil to Portugal)
Pepe became a naturalized Portuguese citizen like Deco after being born a Brazilian. At the age of 18, Pepe moved to Portugal to sign with CS Maritimo.
Even before Pepe opted to play for Portugal, he was never called up to represent Brazil in any youth category. However, according to his father, Pepe was contacted by coach Dunga in 2006 about a future call-up, which the player declined as he had already made up his mind up about joining Portugal’s senior side once he became eligible.
He became a naturalized citizen in August 2007 and on the 30th of the same month he was named in the Portuguese squad for the first time. An injury in training delayed his debut by four more months and his debut eventually came against Finland on 21 November.
Pepe eventually won an international trophy as Portugal lifted the Euro 2016 title where he was the man of the match in the final as Portugal beat France 1-0 in extra time.
#5 Thiago Motta (Brazil to Italy)
Thiago Motta is yet another Brazilian who changed nationality to play international football after having played for Brazil in the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Although he played for the U-23 side, it was a full international competition and hence the international cap gained was recognized by FIFA. But, he was never actually called up to play for the Brazil senior side.
Later there were claims that Motta wanted to represent Italy at the senior level and he was eligible to do so through his paternal grandfather who was Italian. FIFA granted players one chance to change nationality, but it was not for those players who had already played for the senior side in FIFA recognized matches.
On 6 February 2011, Motta was called up to the Italy squad for the first time and two days later he was granted clearance and then made his debut for Italy in a friendly against Germany. He has now gone on to represent Italy at Euro 2012, the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2016.
#6 Jonathan de Guzman (Canada to Netherlands)
De Guzman was born in Ontario, Canada and is of Jamaican and Filipino descent. So there was no way De Guzman could represent Netherlands without getting a Dutch passport. The former Swansea man was raised in Canada and moved to Netherlands in 1999 to play for Feyenoord’s youth team.
There was a lot of speculation about which country he would represent internationally as he was eligible to represent Canada, Philippines and Jamaica. But in February 2008, he made himself available for selection for the Netherlands team as soon as he received Dutch citizenship.
His decision didn’t go down well in Canada as he had said that he had not made up his mind on a Canadian Sports show a week before he declared to play for the Netherlands.
However, De Guzman had to wait till 2013 to play his first International game for Netherlands. He has an older brother, Julian de Guzman who plays internationally for Canada.
#7 Kevin-Prince Boateng (Germany to Ghana)
Kevin-Prince Boateng is the half-brother of German international Jerome Boateng. He was born and brought up in Germany and started his professional career with German club Hertha BSC.
Prince-Boateng played for Germany’s youth football teams at the U-19 and U-21 levels, but he was indefinitely dropped from the U-21 squad in 2007 for breaking the team curfew. Later in 2009, he was selected again for the U-21 Football Championships, but he told the German authorities he was no longer interested in representing Germany.
Boateng received a Ghanaian passport in 2010 after FIFA changed their rules regarding players switching their allegiances, and represented the country at the 2010 World Cup. Funnily, though, almost a year later, he announced his retirement from international football at the age of 24 citing fatigue from traveling as one of the reasons.
He later reversed his decision and returned to the national team for the 2014 World Cup, only to be suspended from the team during the tournament and was sent back home due to disciplinary reasons.
#8 Cacau (Brazil to Germany)
Claudemir Jeronimo Barreto or commonly known as Cacau, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Although he spent his younger days in Brazil, he was never called up to Brazil’s youth squads.
Later he signed for fifth division German side Turkgucu Munchen, before working his way up the ladder into the Bundesliga with Nurnberg. Cacau’s performance for Nurnberg impressed Bundesliga giants VfB Stuttgart and he signed for them in 2003 and played with Die Roten till 2014.
Even after Cacau impressed while playing for Stuttgart, he was never called up to the Brazil squad. In February 2009, he became eligible to play for Germany after acquiring a German passport, having lived in the country for over eight years.
He made his debut for the Germans against China in the same year and also went on to play for Germany at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
#9 Miroslav Klose (Poland to Germany)
Miroslav Klose was born in the Silesian city of Opole, Poland. His father, Josef Klose, was basically a German who remained in Silesia after it was awarded to Poland following World War II.
In 1986, an eight-year-old Miroslav Klose moved to Germany with his family and started his incredible footballing journey with village club SG Blaubach-Diedelkopf, who at the time were in the German seventh division.
In 2001, Klose’s performance in the Bundesliga earned him attention and he was approached by the Polish national team coach, Jerzy Engel, but Klose declined the offer and stated that he wished to play for Germany.
Later that same year, Klose made his debut for Germany and would go on to represent the country in all major competitions from the 2002 FIFA World Cup to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, becoming the leading goalscorer in World Cup history in the process.
Snubbing Poland for Germany is something Klose will look back fondly on as he is now a World Cup winner and a record goal scorer at the tournament.
#10 Aiden McGeady (Scotland to Republic of Ireland)
McGeady was born and brought up in Scotland and played for Scottish giants Celtic for almost a decade. He played for Scotland’s school teams while he was at Queen’s Park, but after he moved to Celtic, he couldn’t do it as Celtic had a rule that didn’t permit their youth players to play for their school teams.
Scotland had a rule that wouldn’t permit a player who did not play for their school team to be considered for a call-up to Scotland Schools selects. The Republic of Ireland had no such rule and so invited McGeady to play for the Republic of Ireland Under-15 Schoolboys team.
McGeady was eligible to play for Ireland through his paternal grandparents and he accepted the invitation to play for the Irish youth team and later snubbed a call-up from the Scottish youth team, despite attempts from the Scottish head coach, Berti Vogts, to persuade him.
McGeady made his full debut for Ireland in 2004 and has gone on to represent the country 86 times.
