International Playboys

[Ray de Galles]

On a visit to Neil Taylor's Wikipedia page I notice, for the first time I think, that he's played for six different international representative sides ; Wales u17, Wales u19, Wales u21, Wales semi-pro, Wales and Great Britain (during the 2012 Olympics).

Annoyingly, I can't find any evidence of him playing for Welsh schoolboys or I'd credit him with seven. Also, I'm now slightly disappointed that football doesn't allow a player to turn out for separate tier one/two international sides over their career or he could be in line for a glorious career swan song with India who he also qualifies for.

Does anyone know of a player who can beat him or are his numbers less rare than I think.

[Sean of the Shed]

New countries would probably be the place to look.
Kosovo have a lot of crossover with Albania and also Norway. Elba Rashani has played for Norway at five levels before playing for Kosovo, whilst Herolind Shala has represented three different nations, Norway at U17 and U21, Albania at U21 and for the senior side before becoming a Kosovo international.

[ursus arctos]

There are a number of guys who played full internationals for the USSR, CIS and one of the successor states. Kuznetsov is one, Kanchelkis is another.

I would think that one if them played for three Soviet underage squads, but the records of those squads are hard to find.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Declan Rice has played for Ireland U16, U17, U19, U21, the full national side and England. I’m not sure if he could play for England U21 having played already for Ireland but he’s eligible through his age.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Looking at the England team, most have played for 5-6 different age groups.

[Ray de Galles]

Gah, going through the rest of that GB 2012 squad and it appears England have more levels of age group representative sides so players like Daniel Sturridge and Jack Cork have eight different ones.

That's just cheating.

[blameless]

There are a number of guys who played full internationals for the USSR, CIS and one of the successor states. Kuznetsov is one, Kanchelkis is another.

I would think that one if them played for three Soviet underage squads, but the records of those squads are hard to find.

Sergei Yuran's the one I always think of for the USSR-CIS-Successor Nation triple crown (Russia in his case, even though he was born in Ukraine). He was also an Under-21 international for the Soviets.

Viktor Onopko nearly managed the feat, but falls just short since his USSR appearances were at U21 only.

edit: a bit more digging reveals that Alexander Mostovi also managed the same as Yuran. And Dmitri Kharine went one better, playing for three different national teams, plus U21 and the Soviet Olympic team too.

[Capybara]

We might have done this, or something similar, before. Terry Venables played for England at schoolboy, youth (U-18), under-23, amateur and full international level which was all that was available then and he is the only player to have done so. He retained his amateur status in order to try and be selected for the Great Britain Olympic team in 1960 but he was unsuccessful. He also played for the Football League and, of course, became England manager.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Rudi Getendorf managed Bermuda, Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, Botswana, Australia, New Caledonia, Nepal (two spells), Tonga, Tanzania, Fiji (two spells), Sao Tome & Principe, Ghana, China, Iran, Mauritius (two spells), Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Samoa.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Rudi Getendorf managed Bermuda, Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, Botswana, Australia, New Caledonia, Nepal (two spells), Tonga, Tanzania, Fiji (two spells), Sao Tome & Principe, Ghana, China, Iran, Mauritius (two spells), Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Samoa.

Gutendorf's 1976 itinerary looks very similar to a cruise I went on in 2017. Of course I never claimed to be the national coach each time I got off the ship.

[Uros Predic]

Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko is another to do the USSR-CIS-Successor Nation thing (Ukraine in his case).

He also played for the USSR Olympic team at Seoul in 1988, for the Ukraine Region in the 1983 Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR (a quadrennial multi-sports tournament between the Soviet Union's regions), and for a Serie A XI against a Football League XI in 1991.

And for good measure went on to manage Ukraine at both under 21 and senior level.



Andrey Pyatnitsky could be a record holder for full international sides represented, as he managed to turn out for four of them; one cap for USSR, five for the CIS, two for Uzbekistan, before returning to representing in Russia in time to play at the 1994 World Cup

[Sits]

I thought this thread was going to be about players like Charlie Nicholas and Rodney Marsh.

[jwdd27]

Carl Jenkinson has played for England U17, Finland U19, Finland U21, England U21 and incredibly won a full England cap in 2012 (26 mins as a sub in a friendly). That was at a time when it looked as though he might turn out to be decent, and you can see his logic in opting for England where he was born and grew up, but I wonder if he regrets not opting for Finland - he'd surely have 50+ caps by now.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Carl Jenkinson has played for England U17, Finland U19, Finland U21, England U21 and incredibly won a full England cap in 2012 (26 mins as a sub in a friendly). That was at a time when it looked as though he might turn out to be decent, and you can see his logic in opting for England where he was born and grew up, but I wonder if he regrets not opting for Finland - he'd surely have 50+ caps by now.

He played in a friendly for England (vs Sweden), so, I think, he could have still gone back and played for Finland.

[Kowalski]

Roman Neustader played for Germany at various levels, including full international friendlies, and Russia.

Alfredo Di Stefano played for Argentina, Colombia and Spain

Puskas played for Hungary and Spain

Mirko Vučinić played for both Serbia & Montenegro and Montenegro.


Incidentally during my life Wales have played

• Czechoslovakia
• RCS
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia

They have also lost in

• Yugoslavia,
• Serbia & Montenegro
• Serbia
• Montnegro

As well as Croatia and Bosnia

[HeavyDracula]

I went looking for something and didn't find it. Saarland existed for 6 years, football-wise, but no-one played for Germany, Saarland, and West Germany. One player played for Germany pre-war and then Saarland, and 3 players played for West Germany after Saarland.

[ursus arctos]

Though Helmut Schoen played for pre-war Germany and managed both Saarland and West Germany

[1974ddr]

Michael Owen: England U15, U16, U18, U20, U21, B and full international.

[Ray de Galles]

Yes, though as I said upthread there are a few English players with even more than that.

Do we know why England have so many more age group sides or is it just that they utilise them more regularly/formally.

Wales only seem to really have a regular u17, u19 and u21 set up (though I think they may very occasionally have fielded those sides in other age group tournaments) while some England players list appearances for teams in the ages in between.

Is it just due to resources, i.e. the volume of players and funds the English FA have at their disposal?