Jurgen Americans

Counting from the left, the first, third and sixth player are Jurgen Americans. Taken when the U.S. national team played against Turkey as a warm up match before 2014 FIFA World Cup.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia received a jersey from head coach Jürgen Klinsmann. Note that U.S.'s squad had 5 players (Jurgen Americans) with servicemen fathers.

Jurgen Americans refer to a group of soccer players, born and trained in Germany, being called to the United States men's national soccer team from 2011 by the U.S.'s German head coach Jürgen Klinsmann (2011-16). It brought a period of Germanization of U.S. soccer and also brought the biggest wave of foreign born players representing the U.S., which the latter led to open complaints by U.S. women's captain Abby Wambach and former U.S. coach Bruce Arena. The issue of dual citizenship in U.S. sports was also under scrutiny. The Germanness of the squad led by a German coach received particular attention in the cycle of 2014 FIFA World Cup as the U.S. was drawn against Germany in the pool stage.

2014 World Cup cycle

The media devoted much cultural commentary on being German Americans, "not being American enough", the emotional reaction for the half-Germans fighting real Germans. It is also noted that the media portrayed them as German Americans instead of Afro-Germans or Americans in Germany.

2018 World Cup cycle

Both Jurgen Americans and the German head coach Klinsmann survived to tournaments later, however, after the U.S. shockingly failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the media revealed Klinsmann's selection of squad ignited deep locker room tension because of perceived preferential treatment. A sports analysis wrote, "The complaints about German American players could have xenophobic undertones, but over time — rightly or wrongly — Klinsmann’s perceived preferential treatment for this group of players would damage team morale".

The reception of Jurgen Americans is part of a bigger discussion on the criticism of Major League Soccer for being not European enough (or German enough). Klinsmann openly said one of his achievement is to bring more American players to Europe. He also preferred American players played in Europe or Germany. A writer explicitly wrote "the European panache of his Jurgen-Americans".

The players

Five German-originated players were called to 23-men squad in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. They all have African American serviceman fathers and German mothers, Four of which are playing at a German club when called up. The calling up of Jurgen Americans reflect a change of managerial philosophy of the U.S. men's national soccer team.

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  Jermaine Jones, the only Jurgen not playing at a German club when called to the 2014 World Cup squad.

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  Fabian Johnson

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  Timmy Chandler

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  Julian Green, the only Jurgen born in the U.S., nonetheless emigrate to Germany.

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  John Brooks

See also

• Americans in Germany
• Afro-Germans
• Hessian (soldier)
• 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fifth Round (U.S. failure to qualify for the World Cup after failing to secure a draw against Trinidad and Tobago in the final qualification match)

Reference

This article "Jurgen Americans" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Jurgen Americans. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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