THE SHOCKING PHENOMENON NAMED IN INDONESIA
When the Indonesian Football Federation agreed with the proposal of the national team coach, Korean coach Shin Tae-yong, to naturalize a series of foreign players, it was met with strong skepticism from Indonesian fans. Many opinions from countries in the region expressed different concerns, such as that doing so would leave domestic players with no "opportunity" to develop their talents, and that language differences could easily lead to disunity due to a lack of integration in both living and playing, leading to disjointed playing style and failure in results. However, Indonesian football has "responded" spectacularly to those doubts with its performance on the field. Football in the archipelago has initially achieved certain successes...
Rafaelson will be named Nguyen Xuan Son if he successfully naturalizes.
The recent 1-1 draw between the Indonesian national team and Saudi Arabia in the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup has surprised many people. Notably, in this match, coach Shin Tae-yong used 9 naturalized players in the starting lineup. In the next match, Indonesia drew 0-0 with Australia, a result that must have made Asia really afraid. Thus, the policy of building and rebuilding the Indonesian national team through the revolution called naturalization of players has borne fruit and it seems that Indonesian football has tried to accelerate to surpass Thailand and Vietnam.
NEED MORE OPEN POLICIES
According to the transfer site Transfermarkt , the defender from the Netherlands, naturalized in Indonesia, Mees Hilgers, is valued at 7 million euros (nearly 200 billion VND), which is higher than the entire Vietnamese national team (6.83 million euros). His mother is Indonesian, so naturalization is not too difficult, even very easy. Looking at Vietnam, we also have players with half Vietnamese blood, but naturalization has been very difficult, and at times it seemed impossible to become a reality. I also understand that there are not many Vietnamese-origin players who play football abroad and are good at it. It is difficult to find, and when you find one, the player himself will encounter some major obstacles, so the naturalization process is extremely difficult due to strict regulations. A typical example is goalkeeper Nguyen Filip. This is considered a very talented player, but the naturalization procedure is delayed for several years, which is probably not good when the player's age of contribution (playing at a high level) is not too long.
Nguyen Filip spent a lot of time on the naturalization process.
PHOTO: MINH TU
Vietnam has agreed to allow players of Vietnamese origin to play for the Vietnam national team, so it is time for the authorities, including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc., to have a more reasonable solution and a more open policy for naturalized players of non-Vietnamese origin. Vietnamese football fans are also interested in the story of Nam Dinh Club, the current V-League champion, when they hunted down Brazilian striker Rafaelson before. In the 2023-2024 V-League season, we witnessed the Brazilian striker's extremely impressive performance, when he scored 31 goals and had 6 assists after 24 matches last season. Rafaelson alone contributed more than half of Nam Dinh Club's total 60 goals, helping to bring the team to the throne of Vietnam's highest football tournament. In addition, the Brazilian striker also became the second player in V-League history when he scored 5 goals in one match. Rafaelson's naturalization process has also been completed. He has applied for Vietnamese citizenship and if approved, he wants to take the name Nguyen Xuan Son.
OF COURSE, WHETHER OR NOT HE CAN BE INTO THE NATIONAL TEAM, THERE ARE MANY FACTORS
However, whether Son is called up to the Vietnam national team or not (when he is successfully naturalized) depends on Vietnam's policy and the head coach's view of the professional factor. Moreover, if the above two requirements are met (the policy of the competent authorities, including the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Football Federation, agree to call up 100% purely naturalized players; along with the coach allowing that player to join the national team), the naturalized player must also satisfy the regulations of the World Football Federation (FIFA). That is, he must have at least 5 years of football practice in Vietnam. If we take Rafaelson as an example, it will be until January 2025 that this player will have 5 years of practice in Vietnam. That is a sufficient condition in terms of time to be able to call him up to the national team if he still maintains excellent form.
Back to the story of world sports. We all know that naturalized players or more broadly, athletes of all sports are a common trend in the world. In ASEAN countries, in football alone, neighboring countries of Vietnam such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand have all used or are using naturalized players. Among them, the two teams of Indonesia and Malaysia are full of players of foreign origin. Like Indonesia, there were up to 11 naturalized players at the same time the team gathered. This shows that the world trend is like that, so Vietnam probably needs to change its way of thinking to be more modern.
Of course, it is clearly not advisable for a national team to have 40-50% of its personnel being naturalized players. However, if the squad has 15-30% naturalized players, it should be considered and accepted if one does not want to fall behind, especially when one has the aspiration to reach the World Cup level and not just stop at the "village pond" and be proud of each other as before.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/xu-huong-nhap-tich-bong-da-viet-nam-nen-ung-xu-the-nao-185240913221537217.htm
Comment (0)