Will Club América midfielder Alejandro Zendejas play for Mexico or the US at the 2022 World Cup?

For the past few months, Alejandro Zendejas has been mulling over the most difficult decision of his career so far. Mexico and the United States have both qualified for this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar and Zendejas is eligible to play for either of them. He must choose whether to represent his homeland, Mexico or play for the United States, who has starred for at youth level. Zendejas’ case is complicated in that he has already played for both Mexico and the USMNT. Born in Ciudad Juárez, he spent his teenage years in the US with Dallas. During that time, he played four international friendlies for the United States Under-15s and four friendlies plus three U17 World Cup qualifiers with the USMNT.

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However, in October last year, he was called up by Tata Martino for Mexico’s senior side in a friendly against Ecuador. He played 23 minutes in the 2-3 defeat at Bank of America stadium. The 24-year-old winger was called up for a second time by Mexico, for a friendly, against Guatamala in April of this year - he started that game and was replaced by Jordán Carillo on 72 minutes.

FIFA investigating

Fast forward a couple of months, and Zendejas was now involved in a tug-of-war between Mexico and the United States, forcing FIFA to intervene. World football’s governing body is investigating whether the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), was in breach of competition rules when they fielded Zendejas in two friendlies against Ecuador and Guatamala.

Martino has not called Zendejas for any of Mexico’s five most recent matches. The Club América player was left out of the squad for Mexico’s friendly against Paraguay on 31 August. The reason why Zendejas cannot be called by Mexico, according to FMF sources, is down to a verbal agreement relating to the time he spent with the US youth teams. They claim that if a player is already registered with one Federation, he cannot be called by another until he personally gives his consent to request a change. Zendejas is still officially registered with US Soccer, after representing the US at youth team level, although he had already expressed on one occasion (during his time at Chivas) that his dream was to eventually play for Mexico. But to date, has not instigated the process to make that possible.

Changing associations

But under FIFA’s eligibility rules, a player can elect to play for another association even when he has appeared for another country at youth level. The FMF’s claims that Zendejas must sign a document to renounce his eligibility for the United States will hold no water with FIFA. Once Zendejas’ case is cleared up, he will not be able to backtrack once he has played a single minute for either Mexico or the USMNT. FIFA’s rules are clear under Article 9.1: “A player may, only once, request to change the association for which he is eligible to play to the association of another country of which he holds the nationality”.

So Zendejas’ status remains unclear and time is running out. When Tata Martino was asked about the situation last week, he said, “Things have to be told the way they are; the player had to sign a document but didn’t want to sign it. There’s nothing more to add, if I didn’t call him up, or if the FMF didn’t register him... it’s not as simple as that. The player was asked to play for Mexico and the player didn’t sign the paperwork. You should ask the player, there is no problem with the federation, or the coach. Obviously from a coach’s perspective, if the demands or doubts are whether he will go to the World Cup or not, there is no chance for a player who thinks that way, it’s almost like extortion. But the truth is that a federation document had to be signed and the footballer said he was going to sign it and then he didn’t sign it”.

All of the teams who will be taking part at the Qatar World Cup must submit their definitive squad of 23-26 players for the finals to FIFA by Sunday 13 November.