19-Year-Old Defender Noahkai Banks Chooses To Represent Germany Over USA

German-American defender Noahkai Banks has decided to play for Germany in future, the country's national under-21 coach Antonio Di Salvo said Friday. Banks, who has dual citizenship, was called up by the U.S. men's national team last year but was only an unused substitute in a friendly loss to Japan in October. The 19-year-old central defender was born in Hawaii and grew up in Germany, where he plays in the Bundesliga with Augsburg. Di Salvo said Banks and attacking midfielder Louey Ben Farhat, who previously played two friendlies for Tunisia, had "chosen to represent Germany" as both were named to the Germany Under-21 squad Friday. "We’ve been in contact with both of them for a while now and had focused our efforts on them," Di Salvo said. "I’m very pleased that we have been able to lay out a future pathway with Germany for them and that they agreed with it." Banks' new team is heading into European under-21 championship qualifiers against Latvia, Malta and Georgia starting next week. Reporting by The Associated Press.