Rubio Rubin has fallen out of the ranks within the U.S. Men’s National Team and now the forward will reportedly be switching his allegiance ahead of a second round of World Cup Qualifying matches this Summer.
The Real Salt Lake forward held a meeting with Guatemalan National Team head coach Marvin Amarini Villatoro and has agreed to play for Los Chapines starting this year, ESPN Guatemala reported Friday.
“I spoke with Amarini and he told me that the boy is interested, the mother is Guatemalan and will begin to do the paperwork to obtain his passport,” Guatemalan Football Federation president Gerardo Paiz told ESPN. “The father is Mexican and he will support Rubin in everything he needs. When the mother obtains the papers, and he (Rubio) can start to do his paperwork.”
Rubin currently kicked off his MLS career in style last week with two assists in a 2-1 victory for Real Salt Lake over Minnesota United. The 25-year-old Oregon native is currently playing for the seventh club in his professional career, after previous stops in Mexico, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway.
A former U.S. Soccer Young Male Athlete of the Year in 2012, Rubio worked his way through the youth ranks within U.S. Soccer. Rubin made his senior debut in 2014 under then-head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, but since has only made six appearances for the Americans.
“The issue here is time, we don’t know if it will give us time,” Paiz said about having Rubin ready for World Cup Qualifying in June for Guatemala. “The Federation has to make a query to FIFA, but that can be done now. We don’t need him to have a Guatemalan passport. We are going to start doing the procedure now.”
Guatemala continues World Cup Qualifying on June 4 and 8 against St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Curaçao respectively, after picking up a pair of shutout wins in March. It will also face Guyana in a Gold Cup qualifier between July 2-3.
From the USMNT perspective, it’s not surprising. @ 25 he wasn’t going to crack the US roster. He’s well behind Sargent, Dike, & the others fighting it out to make the US 23.
From a player perspective it’s his only shot at continuing to play international soccer. He’s out of the US and wouldn’t get a sniff at Mexico’s team. Playing for Guatemala is his only chance.
Honestly I don’t get too upset over these types of switches. He’ll help help raise Guatemala’s level of play…but not enough to truly threaten the US. The players/situations I get upset about are players like J. Gonzalez. Players who are actually able to raise the level of the 23 for the USMNT.
Good luck. A good player with a lot to give any National Team in CONCACAF. Looking really sharp and dangerous for RSL right now. Give ’em hell kid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz28T3zo8WM
Good for him. Nobody can blame him for switching sides. Rubin had that good start in Holland but it went downhill with injuries. I wish him the best of luck. I can see him giving USA hell
I see this as another sign of how far the program had come in the past three decades. A good player who can’t get on the field for the US switching to a different federation. With a few notable exceptions, the traffic had mostly gone in the other direction.
He is a good player….injuries derailed him….
No surprise. He really isn’t a very good player. Definitely not good enough for the US.