He's a dual nat as he was born in Japan but has an American Father's. He's been scoring a lot of goals in the j league as of late.
If he wants to. ................but right now he'd be behind Balogun, Pepi, Sargent, Wright, and Vazquez. At least.
We've called up forwards with less of a track record than Ryo Germain. [Mostly to January camp, etc.] He had a good 2023 in the J-league, and a good start to the 2024 campaign. That's not really the issue anyway. ........................somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. It's extremely difficult to be a Japanese dual-citizen with another country. When Japan's dual nationality ban meets a legal gray zone - The Japan Times Article 11 Clause 1 of Japan’s nationality law states that a Japanese national who obtains another nationality by their own choice shall lose their Japanese citizenship. The law also requires those who have dual citizenship from childhood to choose one by the age of 20. It also means the likelihood of a Japanese-American ever representing Japan is extremely low. We've had Japanese Americans represent the USMNT. Kellyn Acosta, for instance. But he'd likely have needed to forfeit his American citizenship to represent Japan. Being Japanese-American by Kellyn Acosta | The Players’ Tribune (theplayerstribune.com) Sometimes I’ll go through the whole spiel. My dad was born in Japan and lived there until he was 10. My grandma is full Japanese. My stepdad, he’s Mexican — hence Acosta. There’s some Irish blood in there as well, so it’s kinda crazy. A lot of people think I’m Mexican or Spanish or Colombian but, you know, I’m American. Japanese-American.
That Japanese nationality stuff is very much grey area. What happens if they simply don't do anything at 21? For example consider Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori who was still declared to be a Japanese citizen at a late age. The counter is tennis star Naomi Osaka but my quibble with that is she gets a lot of Japanese sponsorship money.
You don't call him up because he is too far down the pecking order, at least right now. Pepi Balo Sargent Wright Vazquez Ferriera Not to mention that the J League is ranked even lower than MLS.
I'm not sure about that. There are very mixed opinions from people watching both leagues. It is likely that they are generally comparable.
Supposedly, a dual national who doesn't renounce the other citizenship by their 22nd birthday "may" lose Japanese citizenship. The Ministry of Justice may send an official reminder to the person, who then has 1 month from that date to choose a nationality or automatically lose citizenship. However, at some point recently the Minister of Justice stated in the Japanese Diet that the ministry has, to date, never actually sent out such a letter or enforced the requirement to choose by age 22.
There's also the William Popp question. He's the goalkeeper for Yokohama. His highlights suggest a rangy athletic who gives up head scratchers sometimes. OTOH there are 2 Japanese American keepers in Belgium who we might be discussing seriously, if they weren't cap-tied.
Ok fine lets say the J League and MLS are comparable. Are you telling me you would call him in? Seriously? And I don't even have Pefok on my list yet he's scoring in a for sure higher league than the J League. Nothing against this guy but he's waaay down the pecking order IMO.
Should we care? I think the big think with Germain is that he's 28, never been super productive and this seems to be triggered by a single 4 goal game he just had. His career high is 7 goals last year, though I think he mostly played midfielder before that. So basically, we're talking about him because of one game.
Also note: he was in J2 last year. His previous high in J1 is 3 goals, so 2024 is already his highest-scoring J1 season with 4 goals that were all scored in the same game.
What a silly discussion. The guy has no future on the Nats. None. Zero. Lets move on. And for the record there are a ton of really good soccer players who have no future with the Nats. That doesn't mean he's not a very solid soccer player. But good grief.
If you're born with dual citizenship, you can keep both passports and the consulates/foreign ministry will basically leave you alone. Meanwhile Germain has just scored his league-leading 10th goal in 10 matches. Given his track record as a non-finisher there's good reason to believe this is a flash in the pan, but Germain might be worth a call if only because he's very different from the other strikers in the pool - very fast, more of a speedy counterattacking forward rather than the type with refined skills in the box. Sorta like if you put Cade Cowell the footballer inside Tim Weah's frame. IIRC he has played on the wing bouncing around mediocre club for most of his career, but playing centrally seems to have unlocked something/masked his weaknesses. In theory, would Germain accepting a US call-up force him to "renounce" Japanese citizenship? I doubt it, but his club might have to register his player nationality as "USA". However the J.League roster rules have a provision which allows for up to 1 Japanese-born player of foreign nationality to be registered as domestic, as long as they completed some accredited schooling inside Japan - which was a rule basically put in place for ethnic Korean players. So Germain would still count as domestic in the J.League either way. Popp is another interesting one. Good frame and excellent with his feet, but inexperienced in the top tier and was actually benched during the 2nd half of 2023 while playing for J2 Machida. He was recruited to Marinos this past offseason (i.e. Postecoglou's old club) mainly for stylistic fit. I watched Popp the other day play an incredible 120 minutes in the AFC CL semifinal 2nd leg, withstanding 40 shots against Ulsan HD with his team down a man due to an early red card. You can watch the game here: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/video/JjNm9CQLSve8xT0olV4uViFZw9h9x9jr/ Not sure if it's an issue but FWIW Popp has said that he is estranged from his American father, who apparently abandoned his family when Popp was a kid, leaving them with a mountain of debt. With respect to Dan Schmidt, he's obviously not an option for GGG but might be a potential MLS signing - I actually asked him once if he'd be interested in playing Stateside, and he answered that he would, as it would make his dad proud.
A random factoid: I found that Ryo Germain has a younger brother (Alexander Germain), who played for EPSL club Manhattan Celtic last season and says on his LinkedIn that he has US citizenship.
Even if he actually has US citizenship (instead of just potentially having it).........................................we can't find playing time for all of Pepi, Balogun, Vazquez, Sargent, and Wright at the moment. I don't really see why goals in Japan should get a player a USMNT callup more than goals in Liga MX or MLS. And even guys further down the depth chart like Duncan McGuire are performing well. We've moved WAY past the days when we'd be calling up a player like this to the senior USMNT. I don't really get the whole discussion. You'd have to have a colossal inferiority complex about North American soccer to believe this player should be called up over a guy like Vazquez of Monterrey (who has never been capped by Berhalter to this day).
Agree, but if an MLSer had 10 goals in 10 games (or a season, for that matter) there would be calls for him to be called in.
Probably not if he’s 29 years old and this is his first good season and almost half of them were PKs. Most managers know that is almost certainly a lucky hot streak and not indicative of real ability. Linsanity was awesome, but Jeremy Lin ain’t going to the hall of fame either. Let’s just enjoy his hot streak. Ghost, remember, we are fans just like you. We’ve seen what gets a player called up over the years now, just like you. We know the standards now, just like you.