Alfredo Di Stéfano back in the 50's-60's played for Argentina, Colombia, and Spain. Many soccer players played for 2 teams, but that's the only case I know of someone playing for 3 teams. Was he the player who played for the most national teams or was there another one? Which soccer player played for the most national teams?
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I saw the title and was going to suggest Di Stefano as an answer. I don't know of any other footballer who played for three different national teams, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. Just to complicate matters, Di Stefano's appearances for Colombia aren't recognised by FIFA, as the country wasn't a member of FIFA at the time.– F1KrazyJan 13, 2020 at 14:50
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Apparently he isnt the only one en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Kilkenny– PabloJan 13, 2020 at 17:56
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Looking at the Wikipedia article, shouldn't the question say that he played for Spain (rather than Uruguay)?– MartinJan 14, 2020 at 3:33
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@Martin I don't know how I didn't catch that, I've submitted an edit to fix it.– F1KrazyJan 14, 2020 at 6:47
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There is a Wikipedia article List of nationality transfers in association football - however, according to the talk page, there are several issues with that list.– MartinJan 14, 2020 at 7:24
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2 Answers
Examples of player who played for three countries.
- As mentioned in the question, Alfredo Di Stéfano played for Argentina and Spain. In addition to that, he played for Columbia - although those matches aren't in the official FIFA records.
- László Kubala played for Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Spain. Kubala also played for Catalonia - however, this team is not a member of FIFA/UEFA.
If we also count caps at the youth level:
- Daniel Brailovsky played for Uruguay at youth level and later represented Argentina and Israel.
- Neil Kilkenny represented England and Ireland at the youth level, and later played for Australia.
- Demitrius Omphroy played for USA and Panama at youth level, as a senior for Phillippines.
- Herolind Shala played for Norway (youth level), Albania and Kosovo.
- Alex Zahavi played for Portugal, USA, Israel - in all three cases at the youth level.
Sources:
- Wikipedia article FIFA eligibility rules (current revision).
- Wikipedia article List of sportspeople who competed for more than one nation (current revision).
- Wikipedia articles of individual players.
- #FootballTrivia: These footballers played for more than one country
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This answer was intentionally made community wiki - feel free to edit it if you have some suitable additions.– MartinJan 14, 2020 at 9:58
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The Wikipedia article List of sportspeople who competed for more than one nation lists Sweden U21, Albania and Kosovo for Loret Sadiku, however the article about the player (current revision does not mention any caps for Albania.– MartinJan 19, 2020 at 8:23
Di Stefano played for both Spain and Argentina and even Puskas played for Hungary and Spain. Even Platini turned out in a match for Kuwait.
