Dual citizen choose States; will it matter?

The lad to your left is Jermaine Jones, a midfielder for Schalke 04 with three caps to his credit, all coming in friendlies for Germany. After making a dent into the German line-up the past two years -- and subsequently being left out of the Euro 2008 team -- Jones informed the Germans he wants to suit up for the States.

Born in 1981 to a US soldier serving in Germany, Jones has dual citizenship. Since he never suited up in tournament game, Jones is allowed to switch national teams.


Anything beyond that is speculation. Raised in Frankfurt, Jones has played 189 games while journeying between Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke, though some were with second squads. On those first teams, he's played 159 times, scoring 16 times. The team finished eighth in Bundesliga, and his three goals were fifth on the squad.

Jones has also courted controversy in his past. According to the Information Superhighway, in 2004 he was asked whether there were gay footballers in the Bundesliga, responding, "hopefully not."

You could go to his website, where you can see him shirtless and such, and pretend to read German.

Jones, who is considered a defensive midfielder, enters a crowded US midfield with Michael Bradley currently the A-1 holding mid, but that's a much shorter task than eclipsing Simon Rolfes et. al to play alongside Michael Ballack, should the Chelsea mid maintain his status as Germany's skipper.

Honestly, I haven't seen enough Schalke to say whether he should play. Somebody ask Gooch for us.