Lucas BARRIOS eligible to play for Paraguay

This morning he's got the news. Borussia Dortmund's striker, Lucas BARRIOS, has become a Paraguayan citizen and so he will very likely play for the Albirroja in South Africa 2010 after Gerardo MARTINO publicly said he would love to have him on the squad (especially after Salvador CABAÑAS' unfortunately incident in which he got shot in the head -he will miss out on the World Cup though he is making a wonderful recovery and we are very glad to hear that-).

Lucas BARRIOS is the son of a Paraguayan woman who got married to an Argentine man and therefore he was eligible to obtain his Paraguayan passport and so he did.

Speaking to a journalist from Ole.com.ar, BARRIOS is saying he is very happy to have become a Paraguayan citizen because that's his mother's country.

"I'm happy to have the chance to be called up by MARTINO, but I don't know what is the decision he will make. I only care about what happens here with Borussia Dortmund".

"I don't have much information about the national team of Paraguay. Just what I hear about from my team-mate here in Dortmund, Nelson HAEDO VALDEZ. I know Paraguay have a lot of great forwards and everybody knows that".

I remember when Lucas BARRIOS was still playing for Colo Colo in Chile and Diego MARADONA said he was watching him. Said BARRIOS had chances to be called up in the future.

But to be fair with Diego...just take a look at the number of attacking options he has at his disposal.

It is always going to be the case for countries such as Argentina and Brazil that inevitably some players are going to choose to play for other national teams. The depth and the competition for places at Argentina and Brazil (perhaps the best two examples, though there are many other countries we could mention here) surely prompt players to search elsewhere in order to fulfil their dream of playing in a World Cup. Player that would have never ever been good enough to play for their home countries.

I'm not saying this is BARRIOS' case, because we are talking about a young player with lots of potential and maybe after South Africa with some forwards getting older and more experience in Europe he could have had opportunities with the Albiceleste.

We've seen David TREZEGUET opting to play for France (though he was born in France and people were questioning why he didn't play for the country in which he spent his life between the age of 4 and his late teens). We've seen Mauro CAMORANESI lifting the World Cup trophy for Italy, though he is 100% Argentine. We will probably see Nestor ORTIGOZA (who plays for Argentina) join Lucas BARRIOS in the national team of Paraguay.

Guillermo FRANCO will play in the World Cup for Mexico. And the list goes on and on and I'm sure I'm leaving a lot of names out from this brief look at the subject.

To be honest...I'm not taking a radical stance on this. They are entitled to chase their dreams though it is sometimes gutting to see them opt to play for a different national team.

I guess it would have pissed me off had Gonzalo HIGUAIN choose to play for France, for example. Not to mention if MESSI would have taken a very different path and opted to play for Spain! It hurts just to think about it!

We still need to see whether MARTINO calls BARRIOS up and what would BARRIOS do if MARADONA decides to dial his number.

In the meantime, good luck to BARRIOS and hope he finds a place called Mundo Albirrojo to see his goals and more articles about him.