As a Canadian citizen with a Welsh mother and an English father, Hargreaves was eligible to represent Canada, Wales or England. Hargreaves initially played for Wales, being capped 3 times for the Wales national under-19 football team, but then opted to play for the England under-21 team in 2000 and was capped by the senior squad the following year. He is the only player to have played for England without having previously lived in the United Kingdom, and only the second, after Joe Baker, to have done so without having previously played in the English football league system.