Alejandro Zendejas stated the chance to reunite with former teammates performed a task in his determination to commit his worldwide future to the United States over Mexico.
Zendejas beforehand appeared for the U.S. nationwide workforce towards Serbia in a pleasant in January, however remained eligible to ask FIFA for a one-time swap of affiliation to Mexico. He dedicated to the USMNT over Mexico final week.
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Talking in Spanish on the USMNT’s camp in Orlando forward of CONCACAF Nations League matches towards Grenada and El Salvador, Zendejas stated: “The last time I came in January I felt very comfortable. I met old teammates, and I felt the project here is for the long term.
“My objective is to play the World Cup and that’s the reason I made the choice to decide on america. I used to be additionally comfortable to seek out once more gamers that I’ve recognized since I used to be a child.”
Zendejas initially played for the U.S. at the youth level, including at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, where he was a teammate of Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams. Pulisic is also in camp ahead of the two matches, although Adams was held out due to a hamstring injury he picked up with his club Leeds United.
“I used to be 15 years previous after I began coaching for america,” Zendejas said. “I went to the World Cup in Chile with the youth workforce, so I feel that is why I made a decision to characterize america.”
It is a determination that had weighed on the Membership America participant — who developed on the FC Dallas academy — for a number of months.
“I spoke to my household about it virtually day by day or each week as a result of I used to be getting calls from all over the place,” he said.
Zendejas, 25, also played for El Tri at the youth level, and later the full Mexico national team in a pair of friendlies against Ecuador in 2021 and Guatemala in 2022. But Zendejas never filed the required one-time switch with FIFA to become eligible to play for Mexico, which was necessary because he had played for the U.S. in official competition.
Mexico was ordered to forfeit five matches (three at the youth level) and fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,900) by FIFA for using Zendejas while he was affiliated with the United States.
Zendejas also pushed back on a report which stated he asked for a World Cup spot in order to switch to Mexico.
“I do not assume anybody might be within the place for somebody to safe one thing for you,” he said.
“We now have to work on that every day and show to those that we deserve the chance. It was a bunch of chaos that occurred over there — individuals saying stuff that wasn’t true. However on the finish of the day I simply tried to not give attention to that. I attempted to give attention to like my membership workforce, taking part in properly and determined to characterize the USA.”
Zendejas is considered one of seven forwards on the roster named by interim coach Anthony Hudson and the left-footed attacker is anticipated to see some taking part in time.