I buzz off the crazy stuff in football and travel. Wacaday republics on the brain. However, in life I usually believe that footballers should play for their birth country only. Of course, due to wars, fluke births when abroad, circumstances etc. many footballers choose to represent a country they were not born in. I was born in Northern Ireland. I spent over 20 years living there and I would only ever play for Northern Ireland. It’s my homeland. It’s my country. However, I have lived in England, Hong Kong, Poland and Australia on some kind of official level over a period of years. Despite that, I wouldn’t want to play international football for any of those countries. Down the years though, not every Northern Irishman agreed with me. Some of them played for a different country and even did it in the World Cup, or at other major tournaments. Again, I tried to add this to Wikipedia but it was rejected as they also don’t believe me. No worries, I’ll just post it on my own blog instead. All of these players were born in Northern Ireland, but chose to play for another country.
Australia
Canada
- Ryan McCurdy (uncapped)
- Norman Patterson
Hong Kong
India
New Zealand
- Noel Barkley
- Jim Bell
- Tony Ferris
- John Hill
Republic of Ireland
- Kevin Deery (uncapped at full level)
- Shane Duffy (not to be confused with Shane Duff)
- Darron Gibson
- James McClean
- Eunan O’Kane
- Marc Wilson
Scotland
Singapore South Africa United States of America
- Dale Ervine
- Cecil Moore
- Brian Quinn
Other links to my football stories the last year or so…
- A list of non-Northern Ireland born Northern Ireland international footballers
- 100 football memories from 100 countries
- Crazy Footballers – Journeymen loyal
- Northern Ireland league players at World Cups
- Top 5 Football Podcasts to listen to
- Countries whose players have won the European Cup
- Visiting the home of the penalty kick – Milford, Northern Ireland
- Guided tour of the Oval Grounds, Belfast
- Countries that have won the World Cup
- Who won the World Cup in 1942?
- Who won the World Cup in 1946?
- Reminiscing the time that Wimbledon played Real Madrid
Other links –
