Get to Know Ten Players Who Played for Multiple National Teams - Report

Switching clubs for better opportunities and offers is a very common phenomenon for professional footballers during their playing career.

But switching national teams is not a very common practice for players yet some of the biggest names in world football have played for two or more national teams.

The practice of changing national teams have always been encouraged by FIFA yet there are certain guidelines which need to be followed in order to switch one's loyalty in international football.

While the rules were more lenient in the earlier days when players were allowed to represent more than two national teams, it has now become a lot more strict.

In 2020, FIFA announced at its 70th annual congress that the eligibility rules had been updated, in what administrators have described as the "first wholesale modernisation" of the rules, with added codification and clarification.

From Alfredo Di Stefano to Ferenc Puskas, Michel Platini and Diego Costa, here are some of the top players who represented two or more national teams.

Here are the list:

Diego Costa

Brazil: 2013

Spain: 2014-present

Diego Costa's robust playing style attracted the attention of Brazilian national team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari in 2013, when he played in friendlies against Italy in Geneva and Russia in London.

However, later that same year Costa decided that he wanted to switch to the Spanish national team having gained nationality through his six years at Atletico Madrid, a decision which surprised many given that the World Cup in Brazil was on the horizon.

Costa made his Spain debut almost exactly a year after first turning out for Brazil, and although the then-holders endured a torrid World Cup, you can bet that the Chelsea forward will be at the forefront of any success they achieve in the near future.

Alfredo Di Stefano

Argentina: 1947

Colombia: 1949

Spain: 1957-1962

When aged 21, Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano played six times for his native Argentina and scored six goals.

Ten years later, however, and after his move to Madrid, Di Stefano acquired Spanish citizenship and went on to turn out 31 times for his adopted country, scoring 23 times despite missing out on the 1958 World Cup in Sweden when Spain failed to qualify. He retired from internationals after helping Spain to the 1962 World Cup.

Ferenc Puskas

Hungary: 1945-1956

Spain: 1961-1962

Puskas was a Hungarian football player and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary and played four international matches for Spain. He became an Olympic champion in 1952 and led his nation to the final of the 1954 World Cup. He won three European Cups (1959, 1960, 1966), ten national championships (five Hungarian and five Spanish Primera División) and eight top inpidual scoring honors.

Michel Platini

France: 1976-1987

Kuwait: 1988

Florent Malouda

France: 2004-2012

French Guiana: 2017

Declan Rice

Republic of Ireland: 2018

England: 2019-present

Thiago Motta

Brazil: 2003

Italy: 2011-2016

Wilfried Zaha

England: 2012-2013

Ivory Coast: 2017-present

Jermaine Jones

Germany: 2008

USA: 2010-2017

Munir El Haddadi

Spain: 2014

Morocco: 2021-present

Munir  is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Sevilla and the Morocco national team.

Munir began his career in the youth ranks of Atlético Madrid before transferring to Barcelona in 2011,[3] where he won the 2013–14 UEFA Youth League. He made his debut for the B-team in March 2014, and scored in his first match for the senior team in August of that year, at the start of a season in which they won the treble. The following year, he was one of five top scorers in the Copa del Rey, which his team won.

Born in Spain to Moroccan parents, Munir earned his first cap for the Spain national team against Macedonia on 8 September 2014. He switched his allegiance to Morocco in 2021, following FIFA's change of rules that year, and went on to represent the side at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.