David Johnson's World of Home Nations Football

 

The UK's Home Nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) are perhaps the most well-known of FIFA's non-sovereign nations. These are countries which are themselves part of other countries, and understandably these non-sovereign nations often have even great complexity when it comes to who qualifies to play for them; for example, what team (or teams) is a British-passport holder born overseas allowed to play for? The answer, broadly speaking (and we'll get to the nuances as the story develops) is all of them. And brings us to the subject of today's article.

David Johnson was born in Kingston, Jamaica but was of British parentage and relocated to the UK as a child. He moved up through the England school boy scene, eventually making a senior international appearance (albeit for England B) in 1998, being selected by then-England-manager Glenn Hoddle in a game designed as testing-ground for under-the-radar players, ahead of that year's World Cup.

After closing out that year without any further interest from the Three Lions, Johnson decided that it was time for a change. Or in fact several changes.

Firstly he pondered a call-up from Northern Ireland's Lawrie McMenemy, but took things no further than that. 

Instead his next step was to answer the call from a rather different side:

Jamaica. And this time he actually played....

...before deciding to switch nationality once again to Wales, stating:

"Mark Hughes told me Wales are going places"

Unfortunately an injury in training prevented Johnson from appearing, but did provide an opportunity for another nationality change, proudly declaring

"[My] future is with Scotland"

Sadly at this point, that pesky nuance came into play: Johnson's mother was found to have been born in England, something that was initially unclear as (much like in the case of Tony Cascarino) she was adopted at birth. 

Why did this matter? Well, under a 1993 agreement between the home nations, a player is tied to their parent's (or grandparents) country, meaning the approaches from Wales and Scotland should never have been made.

Having heard this, the Jamaican FA made appeals to Johnson to return for the 2000 Gold Cup:

Horace Reid, general secretary of the Jamaican Football Federation, has pleaded with Johnson to lead the Reggae Boyz attack in the Gold Cup, saying: "The door is still open to David. He is an exceptional talent who has established himself as one of the top players in his division.

But nothing came of their request.

Amazingly, this wasn't the end of the tale as Northern Ireland subsequently got in touch with the player again in 2004, who was open to the idea of representing the Seleção Norn Iron, with new boss Lawrie Sanchez confirming

"I did speak to David Johnson a while ago; he was interested [in playing for Northern Ireland], but when we checked his eligibility we found out that his mother's English and therefore he can't play for us."

 As is often the case in these scenarios, that was the end of his international playing career, but in an interesting post-script his son Brennan followed a similar, but less convoluted, path appearing first for England at Youth level before switching to Wales for his full debut.

Which is kind of a nice way to tie the whole story up. Hopefully one day he has a grandchild who turns out for the Tartan Army and the circle will be complete!