My sons and I were at the first World Cup match in Seattle, cheering on Egypt and Belgium with the 66,000 spectators at Seattle Stadium on a beautiful, sunny June 15. We were among the Americans rooting for both sides, and I couldn’t help but feel how much the passion for the world’s game can bring us all together.
The pre-game ceremony is the same everywhere for the World Cup. Three anthems are played; the FIFA anthem as teams walk out, followed by the national anthem of both nations. But this year, FIFA introduced something new. Instead of just 11 starting players gathering on the pitch, all 26 members of each team joined the referees in a 360-degree formation facing one another during the national anthems. The intended effect was nothing short of extraordinary, an experience unlike any other sports event I have ever attended.
After the game, as my children and I talked about the big one in Seattle, United States-Australia on June 19, my thoughts settled on the diversity of the 2026 U.S. Men’s National Team and the paradox that presents. Six players were born outside the United States, more than half hold dual citizenship, and more than one-third are the children of immigrants. Yet no one is complaining about birthplace or the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship rights when one is scoring goals for the U.S.
Our nation celebrates diversity in triumph. Our strength is found in our diversity. And for the next few weeks, our team is on stage as an example of that diversity.
Malik Tillman was born in Nurnberg, close to the Army base at Ansbach, where his father was stationed. By the time he was 4, his parents separated and he and his brother were raised in Bavaria by their German mother. Tillman identified as German, he trained at Bayern Munich’s academy and represented Germany at the youth level. While Germany is where his dreams of playing professional soccer began, the United States became his land of opportunity, offering him a faster path to senior international soccer and a chance to play in the World Cup.
Alejandro Zendejas was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and moved with his family to El Paso, Texas, when he was just 6 months old. Because his father became a naturalized citizen when Alejandro was 13 years old, Alejandro was granted U.S. citizenship and a passport.
And while striker Folarin Balogun was born on U.S. soil, it was simply an accident. His mother was seven months pregnant when she attempted to fly home to Nigeria from New York in the summer of 2001. She was denied boarding due to her stage of pregnancy without medical clearance. Folarin was born in Brooklyn that July, making him an American under the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause.
Of course, if President Donald Trump gets his way, to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States if neither parent is a citizen — a decision that will come while the World Cup tournament is ongoing — it will make children like Balogun ineligible to play on the U.S. Men’s National Team in the future. Bear in mind, Balogun is the first USMNT player to score a brace at the World Cup in 96 years. If his incidental American birth had not occurred, he may have been scoring those two goals for the UK or Nigeria instead.
To me, the U.S. men’s soccer team reflects the nation I want to live in, opposed to the one our government is trying to re-imagine. The national soccer team reminds us that talent is not stamped with a birthplace. The six players on the U.S. team who were not born in the United States chose to play for this nation despite being able to play elsewhere. This national team is united by the jerseys they wear, not the background they came from, the education they obtained, or the language they speak.
At a time when immigration dominates national political conversation, the U.S. men’s team presents us with a question. Our national strength has never come from a single language, culture, or ancestry. It has come from our ability to forge a common identity though extraordinary diversity. Every time the team representing all of us takes the field they demonstrate what is our nation’s greatest strength: many stories, many languages, many ancestries, many birthplaces, and yet one nation.
Will we remember that?
Dr. Niran Al-Agba is a pediatrician in Silverdale and writes a regular opinion column for the Kitsap Sun. Contact her at niranalagba@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: America’s strength in diversity, on display at the World Cup | Opinion
