While France’s EuroBasket 2025 campaign is heating up, one big name won’t be suiting up in blue, white, and red — Joel Embiid. Why? And is he even eligible to play in the tournament? The 7-foot MVP was supposed to be the crown jewel of a stacked French squad, potentially anchoring a frontcourt with Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama. Embiid even wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021: “I therefore do not wish to play for any other national team.”

But in October 2023, when Embiid made it official that he would represent Team USA at the Paris 2024 Olympics, instead of France things quickly changed. That decision ended months of speculation. However, now that France suits up for EuroBasket 2025, the question is whether Embiid will still play for France, and the answer seems to be no. Joel Embiid is not eligible to play in EuroBasket 2025 for France anymore. 

When Embiid chose to represent the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Embiid officially locked in his international basketball loyalties. Under FIBA rules, once a player competes in an official international competition for one country’s senior national team, they are permanently tied to that country. EuroBasket is a FIBA-sanctioned event, which means Embiid, having worn Team USA’s jersey in Olympic competition, is ineligible to play for France, or any other country, including Cameroon, going forward.

But his citizenship status doesn’t matter in this context. FIBA allows each national team to have one naturalized player, and Embiid would have qualified under that rule. But it’s a one-time decision. The moment he stepped onto the court for Team USA, he closed the door on France.

That stings for Les Bleus. France bent over backwards for Embiid. After a 2021 letter in which Embiid declared he would “not wish to play for any other national team,” the French government fast-tracked his naturalization. In July 2022, it became official that Joel Embiid was a French citizen. But a year later, Embiid was an American citizen too, and that changed everything.

What is Joel Embiid’s citizenship status?

Technically, Joel Embiid holds three nationalities: Cameroonian, French, and American. He was born in Yaounde, Cameroon, and later moved to the U.S. as a teenager. He attended high school in Florida, played a season at Kansas, before being drafted No. 3 overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014. And over a decade later, he still calls the U.S. home.

But then in 2022, after conversations with the French Basketball Federation, and a promise of unwavering loyalty, Embiid officially received French citizenship. The plan was clear: Embiid would play for France at the 2023 FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics. The French national team built its future around that possibility. Then came the twist.

In October 2023, Joel Embiid was sworn in as an American citizen. He told the AP: “My son is American. I felt like I’m living here, and it’s a blessing to be an American. So I said, why not?” Speaking during training camp, Embiid explained that in recent years, his choices, both personal and professional, have all centered around what’s best for his loved ones. But with his son being born in the United States, things changed. The Sixers star had spent over a decade living in the country, and Embiid felt a strong connection to America. 

France’s reaction? Mixed. Boris Diaw and French Federation President Jean-Pierre Siutat felt blindsided. “We asked him then if he still was with us. He was like, ‘Yes, I still want to play for France.’ But then he didn’t commit,” Diaw told The Athletic. Embiid explained his dilemma as complicated and pressured. He admitted feeling rushed, particularly because France had set a strict deadline for him to commit. That urgency made it harder for him to fully weigh his options. But it wasn’t just about basketball.

With political tensions rising between France and Cameroon, Embiid was worried about how his choice could affect his family back home, concerned about their safety, which steered him away from France and ultimately toward Team USA.

Embiid’s journey has been anything but straightforward. He’s Cameroonian by heritage, French by paperwork, and American by heart and circumstance. As Team France gears up for EuroBasket 2025 without many of its stars, including Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, and Evan Fournier, it will do so knowing the biggest name they once hoped to add has chosen a different flag. And due to FIBA’s rules, there’s no coming back.