While the failure of the national football squad at the
ASEAN Football Federation 2010 (AFF) has not been analyzed by the Vietnam
Football Federation (VFF), VFF Chair Nguyen Trong Hy told the local media that
the team needs to have naturalized foreign members.

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Vietnam’s failure at AFF Cup 2010 urges people to think of naturalized players

According to Hy, employing naturalized foreign players has become a phenomenon
common in regional countries. Brazilian- and African-born footballers have been
playing for Singapore and the Philippines for many years.

At AFF Cup 2010, Singapore had eight naturalized players in the squad. Indonesia
and the Philippines, who secured their spots to the final game of the Cup this
month, has three and nine respectively.

In Vietnam, many naturalized foreign players play for the national championship
V-League. They have played for the national squad during invitational and
friendly events but never in official tournaments.

Hy’s viewpoint has been both supported and protested but the question remains
whether the national team will be stronger thanks to naturalized foreign
players.

Coaches Trieu Quang Ha and Doan Minh Xuong supported the inclusion of
naturalized foreigners in the national team, saying their rejection is a waste
of talent especially considering ethnic Vietnamese players mostly suffer from a
height and strength disadvantage when they play foreign teams.

Some people are, however, not convinced about the wisdom of playing foreigners.
They said the difference in culture may lead them to behave strangely in the
eyes of Vietnamese fans.

FIFA laws allow everyone who is a citizen of a country to play for the national
team. Vietnam has so far granted citizenship to more than 20 foreign
footballers.

Football expert Nguyen Van Vinh said that Vietnam could not compare foreign
players being granted citizenship in Vietnam with similar stories in other
countries.

In other countries, a player of foreign origin is only given the honor of
citizenship if he or she is well integrated into the local culture and society.
In Vietnam, non-native footballers came to Vietnam on a football contract with
local clubs and were later awarded citizenship with strong legal support from
their clubs.

The reason these clubs wanted to naturalize these foreigners is to evade the
local rule that caps the number of foreign players on any team at three.
Consequently, admitting naturalized players into the Vietnamese national team
cannot help improve the domestic football scene.

Of the 14 naturalized foreign players in Vietnam, only two (Kesley Alves and
Dinh Hoang Max) are naturalized “naturally” after they got married with a
Vietnamese woman.

Making the Vietnamese national team stronger depends on a well thought-out
development plan, not on the use of naturalized players, Vinh confirmed.

PV