Dual Nationality decision. (FM14)

I am managing San Marino, (still playing FM14), and I am surprised that despite the Nation now being ranked 3rd in the World, I have.... 6 players that I have produced at club level who I wish to call up for the NT, but who still wish to hold out for selection for Italy.

Now as my save has progressed I have got used to this and accepted it as a part of life, but as we have obviously had some success and are now ranked 3rd in the World, I am surprised that more of these players are not opting to play for us.

I will qualify this by stating that we still haven't passed Italy in the rankings, (the other Nationality in the DN stakes), who are ranked 2nd, but despite this I was expecting there to be at least a slight sway in the little group after the recent 2038 World Cup.

While Italy are ranked 2nd, (1,752 points), we are 3rd (1,673 points), and of this group of 6 players I was expecting that at least 1 of them might have been encouraged to play for us after our recent successes.

Are the factors behind this decision-making process "fluid" or is it something that is set in stone? The reason that I ask is because despite the obvious development of the Nation during my save, (it has been a long hard slog), when we play teams who are ranked below us in the World rankings, the media comments still seems to suggest that we are huge underdogs and it sort of suggests that National team reputation is not linked to World Cup ranking, (or indeed anything else I can find), as expected.

Any thoughts?

I don't think reputation is linked to ranking at all. England, Portugal, Italy and Spain should still have a much higher reputation than Algeria or Costa Rica despite performing worse in the World Cup, even if they fail in the Euro 2016 as well - which would kill their World Ranking but not their reputation as a nation.

But in regards to Jimbokav's comment, this is a sustained period of growth and performance. Like the revival of Chile and Colombia on the international scene, there are nations who improve to the point they become favourites or at the least reputable sides.

I am doing the same Sammarinese challenge and am facing the same problems.

I think the biggest issue is that the reputation scale internationally is small if not, non-existent, and, regardless of how many World Cups you win or length of stay as the World's number 1 side, you will never surpass the "giants" of football as a players preferred choice.