text: ok now that rafa marquez is spanish citizen can he play in the  mexican national team from now on.? and what will happen if spain and mexico were to face each other can he be excused or what??? yes he can. actually most of the argentinians and brazilian players are either spaniards or italians.   after working in europe for a number of years, a player can apply for citizenship. this is something that is very convenient for the club they play for. european regulations set a limit to the number of no-european players a club can hire.   rafa marquez, like ronaldo or roberto carlos had an spaniard passport, spaniard citizenship but they will not play for the spain´s team. fifa´s rule comes into play here. one player can only play for one national team, and this is the country of origin, no the country of citizenship. (there is an exception to the rule, if one player had never play with his country of origin, then he can play for the country of adoption)