The United States’ pursuit of dual-national defender Noahkai Banks appears to be over. The 19-year-old was named in Germany’s U-21 squad for their upcoming U-21 European Championship qualifiers, with manager Antonio Di Salvo saying in an official release that Banks and Louey Ben Farhat, another dual national, have “chosen to represent Germany”. Born in Honolulu to an American father and German mother, Banks has until now only represented US youth national teams, including at the U-17 World Cup in 2023.
Because that is an official Fifa competition, he would need to file a one-time switch to represent Germany. He played in 23 league matches for Augsburg last season, almost all of them starts, and has started and gone the full 90 in all four of their games so far this season. Mauricio Pochettino called Banks in to the senior US teams in September 2025 for friendlies against South Korea and Japan, but Banks did not get off the bench in either game – a loss to South Korea and a win over Japan, both by 2-0 scorelines.
ESPN reported that Banks turned down a call-up to US camp in the March international window, the last before the 2026 World Cup. Even so, Banks was thought to stand an outside chance of making the Pochettino’s World Cup squad given the team’s lack of depth at center-back and relative lack of top-level young options coming through the system. Had Banks chosen the US, he probably would have been in the squad for the upcoming four-game international window.
Pochettino leaned on youth in his selections, which include 18-year-old Philadelphia Union center-back Neil Pierre. Banks still has the USMNT tagged in the bio section of his official Instagram account. One would expect that to change soon.
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