England-born talents who slipped through the net to play for different countries
While England can currently boast a lot of top talent, there are players both past and present who have slipped through the net.
Article 6 of FIFA’s rules dictates that a player is eligible to play for a national team if they were born in that nation, have a biological father, mother, grandfather or grandmother born in that nation or have lived in the territory for at least two years.
What this means is that there are plenty of players who were eligible for England but chose to play their football elsewhere.
Erling Haaland
Being the son of a footballer means you tend to be born in whatever place your dad happened to be playing in at the time and that is exactly the case with Erling Haaland.
Son of Alfie Haaland, Erling was born in the year 2000 when his dad was playing for Leeds.
The family moved to Manchester shortly after with Alfie joining City and staying until 2003, meaning his son would have been eligible to play for England had he chosen to.
However, the striker followed in his dad’s footsteps and declared for Norway in 2015, playing through the youth ranks before making his senior debut four years later.
Haaland may well never win silverware with his country but will always be “Norwegian and proud of it”.
Gareth Bale
Arguably the best British player of the 21st century, Gareth Bale is seen as Mr Wales but there was a theoretical possibility at least of him playing for England.
Bale was eligible through his maternal grandmother but the Cardiff-born winger never had any doubt of who he wanted to play for.
“My grandmother is from England so I had the choice, but I’m from Wales and proud to be so,” said the five-time Champions League winner.
Bale does not regret his choice in the slightest but having him in the side may well have given England the extra push they needed for silverware.
Jamal Musiala
Haaland is the obvious name on this list but the talent of Jamal Musiala may make him an even more painful loss for England fans in the future.
The 22-year-old made his mark on the international stage at Euro 2024 for Germany and what is even more frustrating is that he played for England all the way up to the age of 21.
Born in Stuttgart, he moved to England at the age of seven and was brought up through the English football system, eventually signing for Bayern Munich from Chelsea in 2019.
Breaking into the first team in 2020, Musiala announced the following year that he had decided to represent his mother’s nation and play for Germany.
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Jeremie Frimpong
With right-back a position England have been blessed in for a number of years, this loss has not been felt as much as others but Bayer Leverkusen full back Jeremie Frimpong could have declared for the Three Lions instead of the Oranje.
Born in the Netherlands and of Ghanaian descent, Frimpong spent more than half of his life in the UK after his parents moved to the country when he was seven.
He spent 10 years in the Manchester City academy before joining Celtic but said he felt more Dutch than English, going on to make 12 appearances and counting for the country. He could replace Trent Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool.
Antonee Robinson
Another full-back on this list is Fulham’s Antonee Robinson.
The 27-year-old was born in Milton Keynes and raised in Liverpool but as his father is an American citizen, Robinson declared for the US in 2018.
The left-back, who would have fit in nicely in the current squad, was invited to join England’s under-21s but felt the US had believed in him more.
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