Is Nick DeLeon getting closer to making the jump to his ancestral homeland to play international football?
According to a report in The Trinidad & Tobago Guardian on Sunday, the D.C. United attacker has been called up by T&T co-head coaches Hutson Charles and Jamaal Shabazz for their Feb. 6 friendly in the island nation against Peru. The Phoenix native is eligible to play for T&T through his father, former Trinidadian international Leroy DeLeon.
The younger DeLeon was called up by T&T last year during preseason for the Soca Warriors’ Olympic qualifying campaign, but the then-rookie declined. He then went on to score six goals and added four assists for D.C. during the 2012 regular season and then scored the 88th-minute winner against New York in the second leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals last November.
But Jurgen Klinsmann didn’t make the 22-year-old one of the names he summoned to Southern California for US national team January camp. With T&T preparing for this summer’s Gold Cup, DeLeon may have a difficult decision ahead.
