Gershon set to switch nationality to play for Canada

Ghanaian midfielder Gershon Koffie is set to switch nationality to play for Canada in the coming months and the tantalizing prospect could be a reality by the time Canada faces Mexico and El Salvador in crucial FIFA World Cup qualifiers next year.

According to sources, Canada Soccer officials have been coaxing the Caps’ gritty Ghanaian midfielder, and there’s considerable optimism about his commitment to the red and white.

Last week, Queens Park Rangers winger Junior Hoilett ended years of speculation by committing to Canada over Jamaica, while Glasgow Rangers’ winger Fraser Aird – a 20-year-old born in Toronto – picked Canada over Scotland.

Both will be available to coach Benito Floro when Canada’s hosts Honduras at B.C. Place to open the fourth round of World Cup qualifying on Nov. 13.

If Canada can also secure Koffie’s services before subsequent qualifiers in 2016, it will represent another coup for a program that’s finally making news for the right reasons again.

In June, FC Dallas forward Tesho Akindele accepted Canada’s call despite U.S. interest.

Koffie, 24, has expressed plenty of love in the past for both his birth country and his adopted one, although getting a sniff for 25th-ranked Ghana was always going to be tough.

He arrived in Vancouver five years ago last month, and as far back as 2012 Koffie’s said he’d be happy to play for Canada if the opportunity ever presented itself.

He became a permanent resident in February 2013.

While recent changes to the Canadian Citizenship Act require someone to have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for four of the last six years rather than three of the last four, the government can grant citizenship on a discretionary basis and did so around 350 times from 2009-2014, including for some Olympic hopefuls.

Koffie and Soccer Canada will also need FIFA on board because Koffie played for Ghana at the U-20 level before he was eligible for a second country.

Technically, he’s not able to make a one-time switch, but, again, FIFA can look at such matters on a case-by-case basis, and there is precedent with Thiago Motta’s special permission to play for Italy in 2011 despite being capped by Brazil at the U-23 level prior to his naturalization.

Canada Soccer president Victor Montagliani surely has the pull to deal with that potential snag.

After their home-and-away matches with Honduras in November, Canada will face Mexico next March and then El Salvador in September.

The top two countries will advance to CONCACAF’s final round of World Cup qualifying, known as the Hex.

If Koffie can help get them there, what a story that would be.