"Which east African is Belgian international Kevin De Bruyne also eligible for?" was a trivia question in a pub quiz. The answer is Burundi, btw, due to his Burundian mother. It started a conversation between friends about what the world of football would look like if everyone played for the international team they were eligible for that was ranked the lowest. That conversation has ultimately culminated in this database, where just that has been done (with a few caveats):
Rankings used are from 13/09/2022
Non-FIFA member teams are unaffected and have not lost or added any players. In the instance where a player has multiple second nationalities that include both FIFA and non-FIFA countries, only the lowest ranked FIFA member is counted.
Kevin De Bruyne doesn't have Burundian second nationality in the game data, but is moved to Burundi anyway because he inspired the database.
As well as benefiting a number of countries throughout the rankings, the top 50 nations are much changed:
Some interesting nations to play as due to their losses or gains include England, Ireland, Suriname, Haiti, Canada, DR Congo, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau, amongst others. Two additional files are included, one with the database and where all nations have a youth rating of 135 and one with the database and where all rankings points are cleared.
Alternate Nation Database No Ranking Points.fmf
Alternate Nation Database YR 135.fmf
Alternate Nation Database.fmf