Declared for nation

[JAwtunes]

I'm not very knowledgeable about international management and registrations, so what I have seen is possibly perfectly normal but thought I'd check.

One of my recent intake players at my Welsh club came through as Andorran (born in Andorra) with Portuguese as second nationality, as it fairly common in Andorra.  He played a few u18 games for Andorra and then represented the national team five time (including in the Nations League - not sure if this is relevant).  Anyway, he seems to have gained Welsh citizenship now too and has just played for the Welsh u18s.  When I look on his information page it still shows he has u21 and full caps for Andorra but also says he is eligible for all three nations still (i.e. not declared for Andorra).  Is this normal?

I had a look at the Andorran national team and there is one 20 year old who has about 25 caps who is only eligible for Andorra but it also does not say (declared) after.  All of the other players I checked had (declared) after the name.

[rusty217]

Players are allowed to play for one nation then switch to another if they've only played youth games and friendlies. If he's played Nations League matches however he probably shouldn't be allowed to. Did he actually play in the Nations League, or was he just on the bench? That would make a difference. Otherwise I guess they're counted as friendlies or something rather than competitive matches.

Also, most players don't declare for a nation. They just get picked and start playing. They only declare if they're eligible for more than one and want to prevent the others from calling them up. So a player who's only eligible for Andorra would have no reason to declare for Andorra, he's not going to get call ups from other nations anyway.

[JAwtunes]

@rusty217thanks for the reply.  He started at least 2 games in the Nations League at left back, perhaps they count as friendlies.

[rusty217]

3 minutes ago, JAwtunes said:

@rusty217thanks for the reply.  He started at least 2 games in the Nations League at left back, perhaps they count as friendlies.

Maybe. I guess they were intended to replace friendlies so maybe they're still counted as them.