Twenty-talented Nagel with the youth team USA for Spain despite captaining the Orange U16s

The Recently signed by FC Twente Benjamin Nagel has been named in the final selection for the United States under-16 team. Nagel was born in American Raleigh, North Carolina, so he has both, as the fifteen-year-old talent captains the Orange under-16 team. Dutch and American nationality and can come out of both countries.

“I am very honored that the Netherlands and the USA have given me the opportunity to play in their national youth selections,” says Benjamin Nagel. Official website of FC Twente/Heracles Academy. “It gives me the opportunity to further develop in a new environment and situation.”

“Benjamin has dual citizenship, Dutch and American,” says Dominique Scholten, director of the academy. “This means he can play for the youth selections of both countries, as long as he doesn’t play in a binding match. So he doesn’t have to make the final selection yet for the Netherlands or the USA.

What is such a ‘binding match’? Aloys Wijnker, technical coordinator of the KNVB’s national youth teams, explains. “A binding match is a match to represent a country in an official, international tournament. It includes international matches for a tournament and/or a qualification match for participation in such a tournament. However, binding matches are only applicable to those under 17 years of age. Once a player takes action during a binding match, his selection is ‘final’. ‘ will be labelled. From that moment on, the player can only play international matches for that country, unless an official request to change association is submitted,” Wijnker said.

Along with the US Under-16s, Nagel will play in the U16 Soccer Confederation Cup in Spain. The team will play at least one match. It is against the host nation on 23 November. After that, they can play against fellow teams from Portugal, Belgium, Germany, England, Japan and/or Mexico.