I asked this on the Euro 2008 thread;

Does anyone know of a FIFA RECOGNISED national side that has never selected a player born outside of it's borders?

I suppose the easiest thing to do is nominate countries and people knock them down. I wondered if Brazil might not have needed to, perhaps China won't have or at the other end of the scale someone like San Marino or the Faroes?

My guess is that Brazil probably fielded a foreign-born player in the early days of the CBF, though I haven't been able to find one yet (both Friedenreich and Neco were born in Brazil).

San Marino has fielded a number of players who were born in Italy (though Massimo Bonini, who is far and away their best ever player, was born there). I am pretty sure that the Faeroes, Andorra, Lichtenstein, etc are in the same boat.

As I expected.

Sidney Pullen .

Born in Southampton; three matches for the Selecao in the 1916 Copa America.

Chad

Basque Country

Not actually a national side though, eh? Actually I have a vague recollection of someone playing for them through parentage as well.

Is Chad a guess, Rick? Or do you have some inside knowledge?

I'd be shocked if Chad haven't fielded a French-born player.

SR echoed the Faeroes suggestion on another thread and the first dozen Faeroe internationals I've researched all do seem to have been born there.

I was going to suggest Iceland, but I'm wondering if a couple of Danes may have represented them at some point.

There must be lots of poor countries who couldn't afford to pay for the flights or even scouts for the children of immigrants.

But of course such countries don't hold records for us to look up.

Travel costs can be an issue (though subsidies from FIFA and/or continental federations are sometimes available), but informal immigration networks have proven to be quite good at getting information back to the country of origin.

In tangentially related news, Amauri (the Brazilian striker who just moved from Palermo to Juventus) has announced that he would be happy to play for the Azzurri once he gets his Italian passport in a couple of months.

It seems Rick has left the question about Chad hanging.

Iceland is probably a very good shout ... I'll have a look

Sempronio Carpentiere wrote:

QUOTE:
Not actually a national side though, eh?

Assuming you're referring to the Basque Country, why not? The question doesn't specify 'FIFA recognised', and there's a difference between a nation and a sovereign state. A difference, in fact, which the position of the 'Spanish' Basque Country is probably the best example of...

OK, question altered.

How about Serbia/Bosnia/Croatia/FYR Macedonia.
ie, countries that have been in existance less than 20 years

Scratch Croatia already, Eduardo.

... and Bosnia. Their u21 star, Boubacar Dialida Diabang, is Senegalese by birth.