This conversation about Saief and Gonzalez has had me thinking the last few days about international transfers. While it's great when we get these players to play for the US, especially the German-American invasion under JK, it's strange to think about it from the player's perspective. Does it really just come down to a matter of getting a real chance to play and shine on a big stage? For some of those Germans, was it just that they'd never see the senior team being buried on the German NT depth chart, but here they can start? For Saief is it a chance to play for a top 20 team that will always be playing in the World Cup/big matches versus an afterthought team in Israel? I would imagine that he doesn't identify himself as an American. I don't know that much about Jesse Gonzalez, but his transfer seems to make more sense as I would assume he's always thought of himself as an American, and just an opportunity came up to play for the Mexican youth teams.
That led to me thinking about it from my kids' perspective. My wife is English (although raised here and now naturalized) and my kids both have British passports (in addition to their American ones). But they were born in the Texas and will likely live their entire life in the States. If 20 years from now, my little girl decides that she'll never be able to start for the powerhouse USWNT, but IS good enough to play for England that would seem strange to me. Obviously I'd be proud of my little girl for being a world class soccer player, but at the end of the day, despite what the Queen and FIFA might think, she's not British. Not anymore than Fabian Johnson or Jermaine Jones are really American.
Maybe I just have an overinflated nationalistic sense of patriotism to not understand that this doesn't really matter. I can't imagine ever having another countries name on my chest, even if it would give me an opportunity to do what I do on the highest level.
All of that being said, I just got the ESPN notification that the Gonzalez transfer went through, so USA! USA!
