WORLD CUP 2022
Which players not born in the USA are on the USMNT World Cup roster?
Five players on the USMNT roster were not born in the USA but will represent the nation at the 2022 World Cup
As a result of globalization and the discovery of soccer talent around world, and largely thanks to the huge amount of scouting work that is undertaken in each country nowadays, one of the things that most stands out about the USMNT for the 2022 World Cup is that Gregg Berhalter’s roster includes five players not born in the United States.
Antonee Robinson and Sergiño Dest expected to start for USMNT in 2022 World Cup
Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Sergiño Dest (AC Milan), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic FC), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund) and Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas) are the players in question who were not born in the US. However, as descendants of Americans, they are eligible to play for the USMNT.
Full-backs Robinson and Dest are expected to be starters in their first World Cup. ‘Jedi’ Robinson hails from Milton Keynes, a town in Buckinghamshire in England, 45 miles northwest of London, and came through Everton’s youth academy. Sergiño Dest, meanwhile, was born in the Almere municipality in the Netherlands and started his professional career at Ajax in the Eredivisie.
One of Berhalter’s strongest options for a starting place in central defence is Carter-Vickers, from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England. A product of the Tottenham Hotspur youth academy, he could start in the middle of the back four or be a backup for Walker Zimmerman or Tim Ream.
Finally, a couple of attacking players were also born outside North America: Gio Reyna and Jesús Ferreira. The former was born in Sunderland, England, due to the fact that his father, USMNT legend Claudio, was playing for the Black Cats at the time of his birth. The latter is a native of Santa Marta, Colombia, and is the son of former FC Dallas player, David Ferreira.
Players born in the USA who play for another national team
There are also two reverse cases in the shape of Daniel Schmidt and Jonathan David. Schmidt is a goalkeeper on Japan’s roster who was born in Illinois but is of Japanese descent, while David, who stars for Lille in Ligue 1 in France, will feature in Qatar for Canada but was in fact born in Brooklyn, New York.