Twente Nagel’s talent with USA youth team in Spain despite captaining Orange U16

The recently signed by FC Twente Benjamin Nagel was included in the final United States Under-16 selection. Striking, because the fifteen-year-old talent is the captain of the Orange under-16s. Nagel was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, so he has both Dutch and American citizenship and can travel to both countries.

“I am extremely proud that the Netherlands and the United States have given me the opportunity to play for their national youth teams,” Benjamin Nagel says of the official website of FC Twente/Heracles Academy. “It gives me the opportunity to develop myself even more in a new environment and a new situation.”

“Benjamin has dual nationality, namely Dutch and American”, specifies Dominique Scholten, director of the Academy. “That means he can play for the youth teams of both countries, as long as he doesn’t play a binding match. He therefore does not yet have to make a final choice for the Netherlands or the United States.

What does such a “binding competition” entail? Aloys Wijnker, technical coordinator of national youth teams at the KNVB, explains. “A binding match is a match for a representative country in an official international competition. This includes international matches for a tournament and/or a qualifying match in order to participate in such a tournament. However, the binding matches only apply from the under 17s. As soon as a player acts during a binding match, his choice is marked as “final”. From that moment on, the player can only play international matches for that country, unless an official request has been submitted for a change of association,” Wijnker said.

With the US Under 16, Nagel will play in the U16 Football Federations Cup in Spain. The team will play at least one game. It’s November 23 against the host country. After that, it can be played against peers from Portugal, Belgium, Germany, England, Japan and/or Mexico.