Whether it's due to a childhood move, ancestry, or simply a desire for more game time, all ten of the following players have chosen to switch nationalities in order to represent a different country.
Nationality is a fluid concept, and some of the world's best players could have represented other countries.
We look at some of the players who were born in one country but ended up representing another at the full international level.
10. Kylian Mbappe (France) - Cameroon
Mbappe, France's superstar and current leader in the Golden Boot race at the 2022 tournament, has origins in both Cameroon (father) and Algeria (mother), but ultimately chose to represent his birth country, France.
9. Leroy Sane (Germany) - Senegal
Souleymane Sané, Leroy's father, was a striker for Senegal from 1990 to 1997, making 55 appearances for the Teranga Lions.
He revealed that the Senegal Football Federation was unable to persuade his son to play for them because no meeting was scheduled.
Dejan kulusevski (Sweden) - North Macedonia
Kulusevski was born in Sweden to a Swedish Macedonian father and a Macedonian mother. He represented Macedonia and Sweden at the youth level before deciding to play for his birth country at the senior level, making his full debut in 2019.
7. Raheem Sterling (England) - Jamaica
Raheem Sterling moved to the United Kingdom when he was five years old, after his father was murdered in Jamaica when he was two years old. He grew up in Neasden, London. He obviously looked for work in the UK after graduating from high school.
Alphonso Davies (Canada) - Liberia
Davies is now regarded as the best left-back in the world.Bayern Munich's left-back Alphonso Davies was born on December 2, 2000, in the Ghanaian refugee camp of Buduburam. During the Civil War, his parents, Debeah and Victoria, fled Liberia.
When Alphonso was five years old, the Davies family was able to immigrate to Canada, eventually settling in Edmonton, Alberta.
Thiago Alcantara (Spain) - Brazil
Thiago moved to Spain and then returned to Rio before signing for Barcelona at the age of 14 in 2005. He could have represented Brazil or Italy at the international level, but he chose to pledge allegiance to Spain over his father's wishes.
4. Ansu Fati (Spain) - Guinea Bissau
3. Diego Costa (Spain) - Brazil
The chairman told me that Costa has proven he is unfit to be a member of the Scolari family, that he would contaminate the family because he is not committed to Brazil, but to Spain. He renounced his Brazilian citizenship.
2. Christian Pulisic (USA) - Croatia
1. Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) - Dr Congo
Belgium's all-time leading scorer has ancestors from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where his parents were born.
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