MADRID (AP) \u2014 Former Spain defender Joan Capdevila has asked U.S. President Donald Trump for help getting into the United States to watch Spain face Argentina in Sunday\u2019s World Cup final, after being denied authorization to travel a decade after playing in an exhibition game in Iran.<\/p>\n
In 2010, Capdevila helped Spain win its only men\u2019s World Cup title, starting in the final against the Netherlands, and he was a member of the team that won the 2008 European Championship.<\/p>\n
But he is worried he will miss Sunday\u2019s final and addressed Trump in a post on X, saying his application for visa-free entry via the country\u2019s Electronic System for Travel Authorization ( ESTA ) was denied. Visitors from select countries who want to enter the U.S. without a visa apply via ESTA.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201cI NEED HELP @realDonaldTrump!\u201d Capdevila posted on X on Friday night, adding that his ESTA application was denied.<\/p>\n
Capdevila also sent a separate message to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and tagged the Spanish government\u2019s ministry of sport in his post.<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old Capdevila wrote that he wants to be at the game in New Jersey \u201cwith all my 2010 teammates\u201d to cheer on the current Spain squad.<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, Capdevila was part of a Spanish La Liga legends exhibition team that faced a team of all-stars from Iran in Tehran.<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department allows travelers from \u201cvisa waiver\u201d countries to enter with an ESTA. The program\u2019s rules specify instances in which travelers are not eligible for ESTA \u2014 one of which being if they\u2019ve traveled to Iran after March 1, 2011 \u2014 and if so they \u201cmust obtain a visa prior to traveling to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which runs the visa waiver program and ESTA, has been asked for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Former Spain defender Joan Capdevila has asked U.S. President Donald Trump for help getting into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,77,561,82],"class_list":["post-810423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-international","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}