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As reported by Guatemalan outlet Tercer Tiempo (English reporting by Jon Arnold) on Twitter, Real Salt Lake forward Rubio Rubin is currently in Guatemala training with the Guatemalan men’s national team.
Rubin is set to chat with managers Amarini Villatoro and federation about his international future, but even if he says yes to Guatemala, it will take some time for paperwork, etc. to get sorted out & for him to play. Not an option for this month's WCQs.
— Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) May 31, 2021
This is consistent with rumors that have been circulating that he may file a one-time switch from the US to Guatemala for more opportunities to play international soccer. Rubin last played for the USMNT back in June 2018, but he has never been cap-tied to the US.
Rubin was first called in to the USMNT in 2014 under then head coach Jurgen Klinsmann and received his first cap that November in a friendly. His first three caps came during his first year at FC Utrecht. The rest of his caps came in four friendlies during 2018 when he came back to the Americas and played in Tijuana.
This news that Rubin is with the Guatemalan MNT right now isn’t news to me, however. I really need to get to work on translating some of the key points from interviews we’ve done in Spanish over at El Show RSL, but Rubin told us early in May that he was already planning on being in Guatemala in the beginning of June.
If you want to hear what he said about the topic here is the video of the interview (timestamp 38:30). The auto-translated subtitles work ok if you want to hear him talk about it but don’t understand Spanish (to turn them on, you need to first turn on closed captions, then go into settings and set them to auto-translate.)
To summarize, he’s been talking to the Guatemalan MNT coach for a bit and he’s going to see if he wants to make the switch. As of when we talked to him, he hadn’t made a decision yet to make the one-time switch.
As a USMNT fan and a Rubio Rubin fan, I hope that he does make the switch. I think that he will have more opportunities with the Guatemalan MNT than he would with the US, but whatever he choses to do, I hope he makes the best decision for his career and development.