A few questions about dual-national players

First, I've noticed that a lot of regens have dual nationalities. There are a lof of guys who are Brazilian or Argentinian, but also a second nationality like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese. How common is it in real life for players born in one of these south american countries to also hold an EU passport? It seems like it happens more than I would expect.

Secondly, there are lotf of players with two nationalities, one for a major powerhouse like England or France, and a second nationality of a minnow like Jamaica or Algeria. Obviously these dual national players would prefer to play for the more prestigious country like England or France, but it seems that too often they hold out hope of playing for one of these countries for too long. You'd think that a 28-year old guy playing in the third tier of English soccer who has never been involved with the national team at any level would be willing to accept a call up by Jamaica for the World Cup, but instead they still hold out for an England call up. I understand the 18-year olds holding out on the long shot of making England or France, but not the 28-year olds. It just seems unrealistic to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_diaspora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_diaspora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_people#The_Portuguese_diaspora

If you have ancestry in a foreign country, it can often allow you to play for that foreign country's national team... And in Italy's case, it happens a lot.

First, I've noticed that a lot of regens have dual nationalities. There are a lof of guys who are Brazilian or Argentinian, but also a second nationality like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese. How common is it in real life for players born in one of these south american countries to also hold an EU passport? It seems like it happens more than I would expect.

Secondly, there are lotf of players with two nationalities, one for a major powerhouse like England or France, and a second nationality of a minnow like Jamaica or Algeria. Obviously these dual national players would prefer to play for the more prestigious country like England or France, but it seems that too often they hold out hope of playing for one of these countries for too long. You'd think that a 28-year old guy playing in the third tier of English soccer who has never been involved with the national team at any level would be willing to accept a call up by Jamaica for the World Cup, but instead they still hold out for an England call up. I understand the 18-year olds holding out on the long shot of making England or France, but not the 28-year olds. It just seems unrealistic to me.

The first case is pretty common IRL.

The second case is maybe something SI could improve on right now. I support Reading, and in the current team we have players who have given up the chance of representing England for minnows such as Jamaica, Antigua and Wales, and in less extreme cases we have players who have given up playing for France and Italy to represent the Ivory Coast, Mali and Australia.