Top Stories

Report: Jonathan Gonzalez officially files for switch to Mexico

On Tuesday Jonathan Gonzalez confirmed his decision to switch his national allegiance to Mexico. On Wednesday, he reportedly sent in the paperwork.

According to ESPN FC, FIFA confirmed receiving Jonathan Gonzalez’s one-time switch request. The switch would permanently tie Gonzalez to El Tri and is required after the midfielder played for the U.S. as a youth international.

“We can confirm that FIFA has received such a request,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “Please understand that at this stage we can’t make any further comments.”

The Mexican federation hopes everything gets taken care of within the next ten days so he will be available to play for El Tri in a January 31 friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Comments

  1. Here’s a thought. The economic opportunity was too great to pass. Being spotted at the WC allow this kid to turn pesos into Euros. He’s probably not making a ton of pesos at this point, so the financial bump could set him up for life.

    Reply
    • Actually, if this was a consideration, it is extremely short-sighted. You absolutely have a much bigger $ potential as a USMNT star than as El Tri star.

      This is what made Rossi’s decision even more debatable. As a Fiorentina player and USMNT starter and scorer, his brand would be worth quite a bit. More so than Jozy who himself is not exactly suffering financially.

      Reply
    • Yes forget the Gonzalez name all together weather it be Johnathan or Omar cuz they both broke my heart just in different ways. Now the the name to be hoping to hear about is Timothy Tillman.

      Reply
  2. @SilverRey wrong, he was absolutely contacted by several people and Thomas Rongen even went to the kids house at one point to talk with him and his parents!

    I’ll just leave this right here and people can finally make logical and sensible conclusions to this Gonzalez saga. At the end of the day everything points to JonGon just feeling more Mexican than American smh

    http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/ramos-opens-up-about-gonzalezs-decision-if-you-feel-mexican-play-/11ta1cenorje11oko7zawne59v

    Reply
    • My bad, both Rongen and Ramos said that they had been contacting the kid multiple times within the last year/6mos respectively.
      .
      I knew Rongen had visited his parents during the whole initial recruitment to get Jonathon into the U-17’s – I didn’t realize he had been there recently.
      .
      I wonder if it was a Julien Green situation where they promised him a spot on the WC team if he joined.

      Reply
  3. Big loss. Sad that this kid was not given the royal treatment over the last year by the US program. Don’t know if that would have made a difference, but this is a very bad to loss someone who is legit and not just a “prospect”. Right now, at 18, this California kid is better than Michael Bradley who is a solid MLS pro and an outstanding Jogger. Monterrey is a great team with very good players and JG proved this past season to be one of their best players and made LigaMX best 11 at a position that normally is filled by players much older with more experience.

    Reply
    • When we chase players they turn out to be Ventura Alvarado or Juilan Green. At this point I’m alright with letting some go. If you don’t have the desire to prove something in a US shirt then it probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway.

      Reply
      • Julian Green is only 22 years old and getting playing time in Bundesliga2. AT his age, Jordan Morris was still an amateur player. Not saying Green is a big deal anymore, but he might l turn out to be a great contributor US Nats players. It’s still possible. Alvarado, I don’t know. Was he ever that good in Liga MX? I dont think so. Although, he is still relatively young (25) for centerbacks who sometimes peak at 28-30 age range. I don’t think we gave him the royal treatment, but Klinsmann threw him into the fire a few times when he was probably too inexperienced and it didn’t work. But it did work when he did that with Besler (at least for a time) so its always a risk.

      • Alvarado was a starter for Club America when they won the Torneo Apertura 2014. So he was pretty highly thought of at the time.

    • You made it abundantly clear that you dislike Bradley. Fine!
      We don’t know for sure what US Soccer did to get him, but it sounds like they may have done everything except qualifying for the World Cup. The kids grew up in US system, represented Youth teams. Where is his loyalty?!?!?! What about his parents who immigrated from Mexico to US, but love Mexico so much that they convinced their American son to switch allegiances. Screw them all! Hope his career doesn’t take off and he never plays in a WC because Mexico fails to qualify.

      Reply
      • 1st off the kid is screwed whichever side he picked – he was always going to be getting major grief from one of the countries.
        .
        That being said, his career is taking off, Mexico has qualified for the WC, and there is a good chance he will play given Mexico’s lack of #6’s.
        .
        I don’t bear him any ill will. Like I said, it’s an impossible choice. In this case, the US also dropped the ball in assuming he was firmly in our camp and not personally contacting him in the last year. I don’t blame Gonzalez, I blame USSoccer.
        .
        That doesn’t mean I won’t boo him when we play Mexico though….

    • Silver Rey, your assumption that U.S. soccer didn’t contact him in the last year is just that… an assumption based on nothing.

      Reply
    • He is a bright young player. Whether he will ever play any major role in International soccer is a very open question.

      Actual professional coaches who had the opportunity to see him play preferred Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, and others players (whose names no one here even seems to mention or can recall).

      So maybe he will be all that, but seriously the evidence is you watched him?

      Reply

Leave a Comment