Noahkai Banks has chosen to represent Germany, ending the United States’ pursuit of one of the most coveted dual-national defenders available to it.
The 19-year-old was named in Germany’s Under-21 squad for the country’s upcoming U-21 European Championship qualifiers. Germany U-21 manager Antonio Di Salvo confirmed in an official release that Banks and Louey Ben Farhat, another dual national, have “chosen to represent Germany”.
“We’ve been in contact with [Banks and Ben Farhat] 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 was born in Honolulu to an American father and a German mother, and had until now represented only United States 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 in order to represent Germany.
Both federations had recruited him. He rose to become one of the Bundesliga’s top young defenders last year with FC Augsburg, playing 23 league matches last season, almost all of them as a starter. He has started and gone the full 90 minutes in all four of Augsburg’s games so far this season.
The United States had already given Banks a taste of the senior setup. Mauricio Pochettino called him into the senior squad in September 2025 for friendlies against South Korea and Japan, though 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 Pochettino’s World Cup squad, given the team’s lack of depth at center-back and a relative lack of top-level young options coming through the system.
Banks had publicly kept his options open. “I told both [the US and Germany] that I just wanted to concentrate on the start of the season now,” he told Bild. “But I know that I have to decide by the next international break or at the latest by the international break after next.”
Pochettino told reporters earlier this month that the federation had remained in touch with Banks along with other dual nationals, saying Banks was “still in the same situation that [he] was before the World Cup when we talked”.
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, a detail that would be expected to change soon.