It looks like U.S. Soccer has lost the battle to get Italian American Giuseppe Rossi to play for the Red, White and Blue. The Villarreal striker turns 21 on Feb. 1, at which point he will have to choose between playing for World Champion Italy or the U.S., the country where he was born. U.S. Soccer has tried repeatedly to get Rossi to change his mind, but the former Manchester United striker remains adamant about playing for the country where his parents were born.
Rossi has never played for the Italian senior national team, but FIFA rules mandate that after a player with dual citizenship turns 21 he must choose which country he or she will represent, a binding decision for the rest of that player’s career. Soccer columnist Ives Galarcep concedes that the matter is all but over, as Rossi has been playing for Italy’s U21 team and has said all along that he hopes to one day play for the Azzurri. That means that once his birthday comes and goes, so too does any chance of him playing for the U.S.
Oh well, there goes “potentially the best player ever produced by this country,” says Galarcep. No matter, there will no doubt be more Giuseppe Rossis’ in the future; in this case, perhaps the 20-year-old was born just a little too early. Had he grown up in a soccer environment with a stronger MLS and a richer U.S. history (the 2002 quarterfinal result was maybe too late) then maybe he would have chosen differently.