Is this an all-star in the world or Malaysia? Southeast Asian Naturalization Rush Is Getting Crazy...June's catastrophe Vietnam also lists 100 European players

Jun 19, 2025

Is this an all-star in the world or Malaysia? Southeast Asian Naturalization Rush Is Getting Crazy...June's catastrophe Vietnam also lists 100 European players
Malaysian national team, nine of which are naturalized players on the roster for the Vietnam match. Source = Sissiagol SNS Capture



Is this an all-star in the world or Malaysia? Southeast Asian Naturalization Rush Is Getting Crazy...June's catastrophe Vietnam also lists 100 European players
EPAYonhap News
The naturalization craze is likely to accelerate in the Southeast Asian soccer community.

Vietnamese soccer, which suffered a 0-4 defeat in the second leg of the third qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup against Malaysia on the 10th, rolled up its sleeves for the new naturalized player 'recruitment'.

Southeast Asian soccer media 'Siagol' listed more than 100 Vietnamese players active in Europe after the defeat by the Vietnam Football Association (VFF) in Malaysia on the 17th. It included players under the age of 20, who already play in the top European leagues,' the report said.




The technical team of the Korea Football Association listed the list, and Kim Sang-sik, the head coach of the Vietnamese national soccer team, requested to join after monitoring some of the players. Is it easy to play in the Vietnamese league first if you want to change your nationality under Vietnamese law?戮?'Things...' he said.

In the match against Malaysia, Vietnam donated all four goals to naturalized players: João Perguredo, Rodrigo Holgado, Lavelle Corvain-Ong and Dionne Couls. Malaysia, which defeated Vietnam with naturalized players who learned soccer in Europe, and Indonesia, which participated in the fourth round of the World Cup for the first time in its history, seem to have changed the idea of Vietnam, which is centered on its own players.

Coach Kim Sang-sik won the 2024 ASEAN Championship last year thanks to the explosive performance of Brazilian striker Nguyen Suan Thorne (Hafaelthorne), but Thorne is currently unable to return to the national team due to an eight-month long-term injury. The current national team's main naturalized players include Czech goalkeeper Nguyen Philippe and French fullback Cao Quang Bin (Jason Pendant).




Is this an all-star in the world or Malaysia? Southeast Asian Naturalization Rush Is Getting Crazy...June's catastrophe Vietnam also lists 100 European players
Source=Syagol SNS Capture
However, unlike Malaysia and Indonesia, Vietnam did not establish a 'large-scale naturalization plan'. At a press conference on the 17th, VFF President Tran Kuok Thuan emphasized that Vietnam would pursue "selective naturalization" for the balance, identity, ethnicity, and youth development of football.

With the loss, Kim Sang-sik recorded one win and one loss in the group stage of the Asian Cup qualifying round, giving up the lead in the group with Malaysia, which has been winning two games. In the third qualifying round, only a total of six teams, one of the leading teams in six groups, will make it to the Asian Cup finals in Saudi Arabia from January to February 2027. Vietnam, which failed to advance to the 2026 North Korea-China World Cup finals early on, is going to the Asian Cup finals 'all-in'.

Malaysia, which aims to advance to the Asian Cup finals, is also expected to further increase the proportion of naturalized players in the national team. Malaysian media reported on the 17th that the Malaysian Football Association confirmed the list of 37 Malaysian Argentine players and plans to select about 6-10 more ahead of the September A match.




Malaysia naturalized Spanish full-back Gabriel Palmero and Dutch midfielder Hector Hebel in March, and in June Spanish defender John Irasabal, Argentine centre-back Facundo Garces, striker Rodrigo Holgado, winger Imanol Machuca and Brazilian striker João Figueiredu. Naturalized players were assigned to all positions except the goalkeeper. Malaysia, where they are the center, won against Vietnam for the first time in nearly a decade.

Vietnamese media reported that the Malaysian Football Association is committing the same offense as East Timor, which was sanctioned by FIFA in 2017. At the time, East Timor falsified bloodlines and naturalized eight Brazilian players. In the end, 29 games in which 'fake naturalized players' participated were invalidated, and heavy punishment was inevitable, which would disqualify them from the 2023 Asian Cup.

Is this an all-star in the world or Malaysia? Southeast Asian Naturalization Rush Is Getting Crazy...June's catastrophe Vietnam also lists 100 European players
Indonesia, led by Shin Tae-yong, vice chairman of the Korea Football Association until last year, succeeded in advancing to the fourth round of the World Cup with 20 naturalized players. Dutch striker Ole Romeni, who was naturalized to Indonesia in February, was reborn as a "new ace" by scoring in World Cup qualifying matches against Australia, Bahrain and China. The score against China led China on the path to elimination from the World Cup.

The fourth qualifying round will be held jointly in Qatar and Saudi Arabia in October. Indonesia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates will be divided into two groups of three teams once, and the two top teams in the group will go straight to the World Cup finals. The two second-place teams in each group will play in the fifth qualifying round. In Asia, South Korea, Japan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Iran and Australia have secured tickets to the World Cup finals.



This article was translated by Naver AI translator.