US National Team Includes Sons of Immigrants

The U.S. national soccer team plays its first World Cup game on Monday against Ghana.

For a country where immigration reform is a such a hot button issue, it’s interesting to note that a number of the team members have parents who immigrated to the U.S.

Jozy Altidore was born in New Jersey to parents who came to the U.S. from Haiti. Omar Gonzalez was born to Mexican parents in Texas and is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico.  A full list of players with additional migration details is below.

This year’s team also has a particularly German influence. John Brooks, Timmy Chandler, Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson — were all born in Germany to fathers who were in the United States military serving abroad. As a reader pointed out in the comments below, they’re all considered citizens of the U.S.

The U.S. national soccer team also has two players who are Native American. Chris Wondolowski of the Kiowa tribe and and SBNation.com identified DeAndre Yedlin as black, Native American and Latvian.

Jozy Altidore
Born in Livingston, N.J., parents were born in Haiti.

Tim Howard
Born in New Brunswick, N.J., to an African-American father and his Hungarian mother.

Aron Johannsson
Johannsson was born in Mobile, Alabama while his parents were studying at the University of Alabama. They stayed three years before returning to their native Island, according to his U.S. soccer profile. 

Mix Diskerud
Born in Oslo, Norway, to a Norwegian father and an American mother.

Omar Gonzalez
Born in Dallas, Texas to parents from Mexico.

Alejandro Bedoya
Born in New Jersey to two Colombian-born parents.

Nick Rimando
Rimando’s father is of Filipino descent and his mother is of Mexican descent, according to the U.S. Consulate General of Guadalajara.

Interested to see how many immigrants are part of other World Cup teams? The Global Post analyzed all 32 teams to see what the national teams would look like if immigrants weren’t allowed to play. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the German born players as immigrants. The German born players were born to American servicemen deployed to Germany and as a result are considered U.S. citizens.

Source: Fusion Soccer

Like UrbanStreetSoccer on Facebook. Follow UrbanStreetSoccer on Twitter @UrbanStSoccer