The 2024 AFF Cup marks an important milestone when for the first time in 15 years, a naturalized player plays for the Vietnamese national team. However, in addition to Nguyen Xuan Son, in the V.League, there are still foreign players with Vietnamese nationality, namely Tran Trung Hieu and Hoang Vu Samson.
Tran Trung Hieu's real name is Kizito Geoffrey. He was born in 1993 in Uganda and came to Vietnam in 2012. After 5 years of living and working in the S-shaped strip of land, Kizito received Vietnamese citizenship and chose the name Tran Trung Hieu.
Since then, Kizito has maintained a stable performance, playing continuously in the V.League. Although many generations of national team coaches have shown interest in Tran Trung Hieu, he has not had the opportunity.
Tran Trung Hieu is not eligible to play for the Vietnam national team.
The reason is that Kizito has played many matches for the Uganda national team - the player's original country. He is not eligible to switch national teams to compete.
Most recently, coach Kim Sang-sik went to watch Trung Hieu (Kizito) play from the 2023/2024 season. He thought the 31-year-old star could provide a new option for the Vietnamese team, but he shook his head in regret.
Unlike Tran Trung Hieu, Hoang Vu Samson is fully qualified to play for the Vietnam national team. He was naturalized in 2013 but reached his peak performance at a time when the VFF could not use naturalized players without Vietnamese origin.
By round 9 of V.League 2024/2025, Samson had 219 goals and was the striker with the most goals in the history of the tournament. Unfortunately, Hoang Vu Samson's dream of playing for the Vietnam national team may not come true as he is 36 years old and past the peak of his career. However, with 2 goals and 1 assist, Samson is still more effective than Van Toan, Tuan Hai or Thanh Binh.
Thus, the hopes of naturalized players in general fall on the shoulders of Nguyen Xuan Son (Rafaelson Fernandes). The striker born in 1997 will be on the field from the match against Myanmar on December 21.
At the 2024 AFF Cup, the Vietnamese team is in Group B with Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia. Coach Kim Sang-sik and his team will play the opening match against Laos on December 9.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/vi-sao-tien-ve-nhap-tich-da-170-tran-tai-v-league-khong-the-len-tuyen-viet-nam-ar911970.html
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