Report: Anatole Abang did not turn down US Soccer; US Soccer has made no approach to Anatole Abang

Kristian Dyer reports for BigAppleSoccer.com that one of the more baffling rumors attached to the New York Red Bulls is "flat out wrong", per his sources.

That rumor is the suggestion - advanced by Camfoot.com - that Anatole Abang, RBNY's promising but inexperienced teenage forward, was being actively courted by US Soccer. In itself, not an impossible proposition; the weird part was the suggestion Abang had been offered US citizenship (not US Soccer's to offer) and a place in the US men's U-20 team (Abang turns 20 in July of this year, so that is an offer with a short shelf-life).

Dyer's report cites a league source flatly denying both claims. So Anatole Abang has neither been offered US citizenship, nor has he been offered the chance to start playing in the US national team system.

He has, however, definitely been invited to join the Cameroon men's national team's preparations for its upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against South Africa.

Not content with crushing the rumor of US Soccer's interest in wooing the young striker, Dyer also reports that Abang has never actually played for his country before. Apparently, the player has featured in camps for Cameroon national youth teams (he is often described as having U-17 and U-20 caps), without ever taking the field in a representative match.

So if Abang does get a few minutes for Cameroon against South Africa over the next few days, they won't just be his first senior national team minutes - they will be his first minutes representing his country at any level.

Best of luck, Anatole. We're rooting for you to get that debut international cap.