Pietersen questions Wilshere stance over non-English-born players winning caps

Arsenal midfielder denied comments were aimed at Man United’s Adnan Januzaj

Jack Wilshere was last night at the centre of a remarkable row over non-English-born players representing the country. The cricketer Kevin Pietersen challenged the Arsenal midfielder over his stance that “the only people who should play for England are English people”.

Pietersen, who was born in South Africa but has an English mother, qualified to play for England after living in the country for four years. He took to Twitter to ask his footballing counterpart where that would leave him and a number of other leading sports stars, including Olympic hero Mo Farah, who was born in Somalia, and the Kenyan-born Briton Chris Froome, who won this year’s Tour de France.

As the debate, sparked by the possibility of the Belgian-born teenager Adnan Januzaj playing for England, spiralled into a wider discussion about identity and nationality, Pietersen, England’s fifth highest run-scorer in Tests, fourth highest in one-day internationals and who is expected to win his 100th Test cap in the Ashes in Australia later this year, tweeted: “Interested to know how you define foreigner ... ? Would that include me, Strauss, Trott, Prior, Justin Rose, Froome, Mo Farah?” Wilshere responded: “With all due respect Mr Pietersen, the question was about football! Cricket, cycling, athletics is not my field.”

But Pietersen replied: "Same difference . . . It's about representing your country! IN ANY SPORT!" Wilshere replied: "I agree, that's exactly what I was saying."

Reiterated stance
Wilshere had earlier denied that his comments were aimed at Januzaj, despite being specifically asked about the Manchester United player, but then reiterated his stance, saying "the question was should foreign players be allowed to play for England, and in my opinion I don't think they should!"

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Other sports stars joined the debate, with the former England football captain Alan Shearer supporting Wilshere’s view. “I totally understand that the game has evolved and has moved on but I’m of the belief that just because you’ve lived in this country for five or six years it doesn’t mean that you can be playing in the English national team,” he told the BBC.

The spat came as the FA chairman, Greg Dyke, launched a review of its approach to naturalisation rules in light of the debate sparked by Manchester United’s Januzaj.

Januzaj, who is of Kosovo-Albanian descent, moved to Old Trafford at 16 and could theoretically represent England in February 2018 under Fifa statutes. The FA is understood to be taking a far more proactive stance than previously to monitoring which players may become available to qualify for England.

Dyke said the FA was “looking at the whole issue” and that no decisions had been taken yet about how far it would push the boundaries. “What exactly are the rules and do you push them to the very limit?” said Dyke. “My view is that we should be looking for talent and then look at what the rules actually say, then ask if we can actually do this”.

David Bernstein, who made way for Dyke in June, said fans wanted England to pick the best players possible within the rules. "But if within the rules there are players who are eligible to play for England I would be inclined to pick the best players we can get."
Guardian Service