“We don’t need to convince. A player needs to want to play for the national team,” remarked Mauricio Pochettino recently, clearly setting boundaries and refusing to bend his knee to persuade any dual-nationality player to wear the U.S. Men’s National Team shirt. While this statement alone is enough to give chills, the Argentine tactician has still been reminded that his job is ‘to go out and find the best talent that is American.’

This stark reminder came from none other than USMNT icon Charlie Davies. On the latest episode of the CBS Sports Golazo’s Call It What You Want segment, the former striker discussed Pochettino’s inspiring take on why he won’t convince any player to play for the Stars and Stripes. Precisely, it’s not like Davies wants the 52-year-old to remain cold with potential recruits; he just wants him to make a subtle approach.

“I think you gotta be a little careful with that because if you have the chance to get a Yunus Musah…[then why not beg],” began Davies. Though Jimmy Conrad questioned who’s going to the begging or shall we say recruit, the 38-year-old pundit insisted that a formality question of “We’d love for you to come represent the United States. Do you want to play with your heart and represent this country like the rest of the squad?” shall be asked by the dual nats.

Of course, the following shouldn’t be done by even getting ready to down. “You have to do that. That’s your job—to go out and find the best talent that is American. From that standpoint, love it! Bending the knee? Absolutely not! You either want to play for this proven young squad with all this hype; you got the World Cup on home soil; you want to die to be a part of this, or good luck!” concluded Davies.

Notably, Pochettino has left the decision to dual nationals instead. Urging the US Soccer Federation to remain careful, he had also mentioned, “One player cannot be more important than the team or 300 million people. The player, if he’s an American player, needs to be desperate, needs to show that we need him. Because, if not, we are a weak Federation.”

He prefers players with less raw talent but are fully committed to fighting for the national team, believing that those with the right attitude will be given the chance to showcase their quality. Speaking of which, who exactly are these players?

Which dual nationality stars could Mauricio Pochettino miss out on for USMNT if he remains cold?

The current situation sees three highly sought-after talents available, with the Stars and Stripes having an opportunity to secure them. The first is VfB Stuttgart center-back Anrie Chase, who, despite being born and raised in Japan, holds US citizenship. Next is 21-year-old left-back Nathaniel Brown from Eintracht Frankfurt, who is originally from Germany. Lastly, Burnley winger Luca Koleosho, born in Norwalk, Connecticut, is leaning towards representing Italy despite being American.

While there may be more names, Poch remained lip-tight over the potential names the USSF may convince. “I don’t want to give names, but we are working on other players to try to see if they want to be committed with us,” admitted the 52-year-old ahead of the CONCACAF Nations League.

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