Malaysia makes strong moves to naturalize players
The players that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is inviting to naturalize include striker Ferdy Druijf (1.90 m, 26 years old, Rapid Wien Club - Austria), defensive midfielder Sem Scheperman (1.88 m, 22 years old, Heracles Almelo - Netherlands) and right-back Dylan van Wageningen (1.89 m, 27 years old, Sparta Rotterdam - Netherlands).
Vietnam team is ready to face all challenges
All three players have nationality. FAM wants to bring these players to the Malaysian team and is willing to pay a large sum of money for them to agree to naturalize, then wear the shirt of the team nicknamed "the Malayan Tigers".
Dutch media confirmed FAM's interest in the aforementioned players: "Malaysia is trying to copy Indonesia's formula, which is to naturalize as many players as possible with European roots. The Asian country wants to do this by finding connections to contact the players."
The moves to naturalize players were made by FAM, while the Malaysian team was preparing for the third qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup. In the Asian qualifying round, Malaysia was in Group F with Vietnam, Laos and Nepal. In this group, Vietnam and Malaysia are considered the main rivals for the top spot. Only the teams that top the third qualifying round groups will qualify for the final round of the 2027 Asian Cup.
The Vietnamese team must prepare carefully.
The Vietnamese team will have to prepare carefully when our opponents around us are naturalizing players en masse. In fact, the Vietnamese team has also started to get used to the situation where opponents like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore use many players born outside of Southeast Asia when they compete with us.
Coach Kim Sang-sik's team has its own path.
At the 2024 AFF Cup, coach Kim Sang-sik's team defeated two very strong teams, using naturalized players, including Singapore in the semi-finals and Thailand in the final. Among them, Singapore has midfielder Kyoga Nakamura, a pure Japanese player, who was naturalized in Singapore before the AFF Cup. Meanwhile, Thailand has right-back James Beresford (born in England), right-back Nicholas Mickelson (born in Norway), midfielder William Weidersjo (born in Sweden) and striker Patrik Gustavsson (born in Sweden), who are partly of European descent.
The Vietnamese team won against the above "Westernized" opponents thanks to our suitable playing style and formation. The Vietnamese team itself has also learned lessons from the defeats against the team with many naturalized European players, Indonesia, in early 2024.
In early 2024, the Vietnamese team under coach Philippe Troussier continuously lost to Indonesia because coach Troussier chose inappropriate personnel and playing style. By the end of 2024 and early 2025, the Vietnamese team under coach Kim Sang-sik had completely transformed. We played stronger and more confidently when facing opponents with many naturalized players.
Therefore, the Vietnamese team will prepare for the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers in its own way. We will go our own way, and the fact that our opponent Malaysia has more naturalized players is a detail we will study and research about them. There is no guarantee that the Malaysian team, after having more naturalized players from Europe, will be stronger than the Vietnamese team.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/malaysia-he-lo-cau-thu-nhap-tich-khung-tu-chau-au-viet-nam-phai-than-trong-18525020211584153.htm
Comment (0)