Germany snub French star Ismael

Bayern Munich's French defender Valerien Ismael (L) gestures during their German Cup football match against Neuruppin on August 21, 2005 in Berlin. Ismael has become the latest foreigner to be denied the chance to play for the German national team.

Bayern Munich's French defender Valerien Ismael has become the latest foreigner to be denied the chance to play for the German national team.

The 29-year-old Ismael said he wanted to play for Jurgen Klinsmann's Germany with France manager Raynald Domenech continuing to overlook him, but that hope has gone up in smoke.

"We feel it is very positive that Ismael is interested in playing for Germany," Oliver Bierhoff, Germany's team manager, told German sports agency SID. "But as with the Lincoln case we believe he would prefer to play for his homeland.

"Just because he has limited chances with France he wants to play for Germany. That is not good enough to wear the German shirt.

"Therefore it makes no sense to accept the offer. A close connection to Germany is the basic requirement to play for this team."

Ismael was born in Strasbourg, a French city that lies right on the border with Germany, but has no obvious connection to Germany although he pointed out that they had made exceptions in the past.

"I have to look at the background of my grandparents and so on," Ismael earlier told Bild daily. "But others have been nationalised such as the Brazilian (Paolo) Rink, Switzerland's (Oliver) Neuville and South Africa's (Sean) Dundee."

Neuville had a German father to ease his citizenship while Brazilian-born striker Rink qualified courtesy of his German grandparents, but Dundee was a different case altogether.

In 1995 Germany caused controversy by handing citizenship to the Karlsruhe striker, born and raised in South Africa, but the forward never actually represented Germany.

Schalke 04's Brazilian playmaker Lincoln recently claimed he was interested in representing Germany, with his Brazil chances limited, but his offer was flatly turned down.

In the current German team several players are from mixed backgrounds with Kevin Kuranyi born in Brazil, although he has a German father, while Gerald Asamoah was born in Ghana.