If you were born in England but big your parents were Spanish, surely you are British ?

[Lardlizard]

Born n bred here
So if someone said, about our child being a good footballer, and will be playing for England when he’s older, as a friendly compliment
It’s kinda rude to get offended and say we are not English we are Spanish
He will play for Spain if he plays for anyone in a really arsed way as if it’s offensive being. Called British or English

My dad was English, my mum was dutch. Through them I got dual nationality. When my dd was born I applied for a Dutch passport for her, dh (fully British) sorted out her UK passport. My dd doesn't speak a word of Dutch, we go over about one weekend a year to see my aunt.

She's recently good quite good at her sport and the coaches are muttering about England trials within the next year. So she could maybe potentially compete for Team GB. But equally she would also be able to try out for the Netherlands national team and represent them (the sport is not as popular in nl so she's got a higher chance of being invited to represent the country). I'm not sure if she could complete for team gb and then at a later date compete for the Netherlands or visa versa

Maybe she IS deeply offended to be called British. Why not 🤷‍♀️

Both of my parents were not born in Britain, none of my Dad's parents were British, my mum is a little bit more complicated.

I was born in London, I am British, my DS is British.

To make this a little bit more fun, DP was not born in Britain but is British.

However due to my parents, DS could play for a possibility of 3 countries, but certainly for 2 (duel nationality) he can't speak the language of one of those countries either

in a really arsed way as if it’s offensive being. Called British or English

With the state of Anglo-European relations right now, I'd be trying to get their Spanish passports.

As far as my Scottish father is concerned DD can play for Scotland, or the country she was born in, but never England. Even though I was born and bred there. Seems fair enough.

Oh and Britain and England are not interchangeable.

He could choose to play for the US when older (hypothetically, he's not a top athlete!) but we'd definitely push for him to play for England / GB (if Olympics), if he were ever of that calibre.

Given that in most sports it is far more competitive to get a place on a US team, that would be a good strategy. See: Tiffany Porter etc.

Do you remember the controversy about Zola Budd?

She was born and raised in South Africa but her grandfather was British.

Budd, who was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa, achieved fame in 1984, at the age of 17, when she broke the women's 5000 m world record with a time of 15:01.83.[7] Since her performance took place in South Africa, then excluded from international athletics competition because of its apartheid policy, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) refused to ratify Budd's time as an official world record.

In 1985 she claimed the world record officially, while representing Great Britain, clocking 14:48.07.[8]

Arrival in Britain
Edit
The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, persuaded Budd's father to encourage her to apply for British citizenship, on the grounds that her grandfather was British, to circumvent the international sporting boycott of South Africa, so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With a strong push from the Daily Mail, British citizenship was granted in short order and she moved to Guildford. Her application and arrival was controversial due to her acquiring a passport under preferential circumstances. Groups supporting the abolition of apartheid campaigned vociferously and effectively to highlight the special treatment she received; other applicants had to wait sometimes years to be granted citizenship, if at all.

Shortly afterwards, Budd was forced to pull out of a 1500 metres race in Crawley, Sussex, when the town council withdrew their invitation at short notice. The race was part of the inaugural event for the town's new Bewbush Leisure Centre and Mayor Alf Pegler said members of the council had expressed misgivings that the local significance of the event would be overshadowed by "political connotations and anti-apartheid demonstrators".[9]

She ran her first competitive race on the cinder track at Central Park in Dartford, Kent, covering 3000m in 9 mins. 2.6 seconds in a race shown live on the BBC's Grandstand programme.[10] She ran in further races in Britain, including the UK Championships 1500m (won in 4 mins. 4 secs.) and the 3000m in the UK Olympic trials, which she won in 8 mins. 40 secs., earning a place on the British Olympic team. In the 2000m at Crystal Palace in July 1984 she set a new world record of 5 mins. 33.15 secs.[11] Commenting during the race for the BBC, David Coleman exclaimed, "The message will now be flashed around the world – Zola Budd is no myth."

wikipedia.org/wiki/Zola_Budd

I think you've got to let people self identify.

We have an African Oye every year, but the black people attending are third (at least) generation Black British. As are the African Americans. I wouldn't want to face their reaction to you telling them they are British/American.

I consider myself mixed heritage because i have been influenced by my, Grandfathers/Father not being from the UK.

We ate differently and had very different opinions to my peers.

But football is tribal, as said. So is Rugby and Cricket, I'm always torn to who I should want to win. I grew up watching Rugby and Cricket with my Father cheering for his home Country.

European football is slightly different than the UK league. But like every argument about football, tgis is a particularly stupid one.

“t was like she was deeply offended!!“

Yeah yeah, course she was. She was being racist against the English.Bloody foreigners.
There you are. You can go away now!

You probably got on her nerves importantly insisting child is British. Who wouldn't be annoyed by someone banging on about their nationality and heritage? It's rude

Nationality and national identity are two different things OP.

I have dual citizenship (British and another EU country) but if you ask me what I am it wouldn't cross my mind to say British. Even though I have been in the UK a long time, I still identify with my birth nation and I suspect I always will.

My nieces are Australian. Their mother (my sister) is British, their father is Australian and they were born and raised in Australia. They do have British passports but they don't consider themselves to be British.

I wouldnt consider a child who was born and brought up in the UK and whose parents were born and brought up in the UK to be anything other than British but if the mother feels differently then I would respect that.

All that goes through my mind is an image of those tubes of wrapped sweets called Spangles that were phased out many years ago.

I was born in Nairobi to British parents. I’m British not Kenyan.

Somebody's mother is deeply offended by a suggestion that a child could play football for England. Also that someone, possibly the same person, doesn't speak Spanish.
Yep, clear as mud.
As a pp mentioned being British does not automatically mean English, it's called the United Kingdom for a reason.

It depends. In 2006 the EU law changed and children born in a EU country to old-EU (so without the eastern EU states) parents who could prove their settled state (in constant employment, living permanetly for years) meant a child born to said parents had also the nationality of the country of birth.

So, in our case DH and I (both Germans) came to the UK in 2000, DD was born in 2007 and is both German and British.

I am not sure how this would work for children born to parents of Spanish nationality who had been born in the UK before 2006 without aquiring British nationality by naturalisation.

If the parents are British (by naturalisation or born to parents who became British citizens) the child is British. I am not sure if the Spanish law means that you have to give up the Spanish nationality if you acquire another one. If this is the case the child in question may be of Spanish heritage but is not a Spanish national.

With Brexit looming it may actually be good to sort this our, an EU nationality will be of good value in the future, football or not.

I could play for six countries. I would play for whoever would take me. I'm old and rubbish at football so that statement has kind of lost its power, the older I get.

Probably both Spanish and British?

The law is one thing but what you feel yourself to be is different so I guess it depends - does the child speak Spanish at home? Do they celebrate Spanish cultural events over British ones? Etc

Actually they're likely to be able to choose. Iv been involved in a country's sports team and find this is often the case.

My DD was born in another EU country. She's definitely British, no other nationality. She's lived in 3 different countries so far (and moved country 4times)

My son is Spanish and British because he's first generation born here. He automatically gets the Spanish nationally from me. His children will have to apply if they want Spanish nationality.

So in your example, that child is British unless his parents apply for his second nationality

Ryan Giggs played for the England Youth Team and then moved over to play for Wales. He was obviously "good enough " to have got into the England senior team but chose Wales because that was where he had a stronger emotional connection.

Not sure if it is true but I think was entitled to play for England via his Dad but his parents split up and he chose his Mum's country.

Hence the "if only Giggs' parents hadn't split up, England would have been awesome- we were missing a left sided winger at a crucial time " thing.

It's his choice if he is good enough to have a choice.

Why did you change the background of the parents when you didn’t get the answer that you want?

You sound excessively bothered.

As a child of non English parents, you're often raised surrounded by others like you, you eat different food, possibly follow different religions, have different attitudes to certain things, English people themselves can have a certain attitude towards you / certainly your parents, often your parents are vocal about not being English and you can end up not feeling English yourself. I don't feel English but yet I am not Irish (parents are). I am of course an Irish citizen by law but I hold a UK passport. My dcs are firmly British but have Irish names and know that they are from Irish stock.

It can be a bit of an adjustment when as a second generation child, bought up within touching distance of a different nationality to then feel a bit odd that your children don't have that. Your experience is not theirs but for all intents and purposes you sound the same and look the same and in our case were all born in the same hospital!

It's something I've thought about a lot over the years and I have friends who feel the same. In our house the kids know that I would never support England in any sport, the default position is to support whoever is playing against them. They support England and it's all done in jest (unless my mum is here and it can get quite heated :)

Sense of nationality can be a strange thing and is the result of so much more than what you see on the outside looking in.