President Donald Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship has reached the US Supreme Court, but the debate is already being reflected on one of the world’s biggest sporting stages, the FIFA World Cup.
For generations, anyone born on US soil has automatically received American citizenship. Trump wants to change that as part of his broader immigration policy.
As the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the issue, US striker Folarin Balogun has become a real life example of how birthright citizenship works.
Balogun scored twice in the United States’ 4-1 win over Paraguay, but his path to representing the country came down to a unique set of circumstances.
“My mother came to the US to visit her sister, and she had her return ticket but then they said that she was too pregnant. So I was born in New York,” Balogun said in an Instagram video shared by the US team this week.
Although he moved to London when he was just one month old, Balogun qualified for US citizenship because he was born in New York.
The striker, who still prefers English tea to coffee, later chose to represent the United States instead of England or Nigeria, the country of his family’s roots.
“The way I was eligible to represent America… I’m not going to be the person to stand in the way of this story,” he said in his London accent.
The United States, Mexico and Canada, the three World Cup hosts, are among a small group of countries that grant automatic citizenship to people born within their borders.
Trump wants citizenship to be limited to babies born to at least one American citizen or lawful permanent resident. Under that proposal, Balogun would not have qualified.
Experts who spoke to AFP said Balogun’s case is unusual in football but shows how migration continues to shape the modern game.
According to Marissa Kiss of George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research, nearly one quarter of players at this World Cup were born in a country different from the one they now represent.
“As with the World Baseball Classic, the Olympics, and the World Cup, countries are competing for talent and immigration policy is a competitive tool,” she said.
“Countries that make citizenship easier to obtain have an advantage in recruiting talent.”
Gijsbert Oonk, a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, said diaspora communities are playing a growing role in expanding national team player pools.
Data collected by Oonk shows that 75 European born players are representing African teams at this World Cup.
“France has become the world’s most important exporter of football talent. During the 2026 World Cup, close to 100 participating players were born in France. Yet only a minority of them represent the French national team,” he wrote in a recent blog post.
Many French born players with African heritage now play for countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mali and Haiti.
“The banlieues surrounding Paris have become football’s equivalent of Silicon Valley,” he said, referring to suburbs with large immigrant communities.
The US national team says half of its 26 player squad holds at least dual nationality.
One example is Tim Weah, the son of former Ballon d’Or winner and former Liberian president George Weah.
Tim Weah chose the United States but was also eligible to play for Liberia, Jamaica and France.
Curacao offers another example. According to David Storey, honorary professor of human geography at the University of Worcester, only one player in the squad was born on the Caribbean island itself.
The other 25 players were born in the Netherlands, which still has constitutional ties with Curacao.
“Although they have a small population of 158,000, they have used their diaspora to expand the player pool,” Storey told AFP.
The World Cup also includes four sets of brothers, with each pair representing different countries.
The United States will next face Australia on Friday. Australia’s squad includes three players with refugee backgrounds.
Canada captain Alphonso Davies also has a remarkable story. He was born in a refugee camp in Ghana to Liberian parents before moving to Canada and becoming one of the country’s biggest football stars.
