Malaysian football suddenly stops naturalizing new players, Vietnam team less worried

Malaysia's surprising decision

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has sent a document to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs , suspending the naturalization of new players, with the view that the Malaysian national team does not want more naturalized players.

On the side of the Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports , Minister Chow Yoo Hoo confirmed that the agency had received the above document. According to the Minister of Youth and Sports, the management of naturalization issues is under the authority of the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs, in accordance with the current policies of this country.

Malaysia (yellow shirt) will not have any new naturalized players when they meet Vietnam again in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Previously, for players who were not of Malaysian origin, they needed to live and work (play football) in Malaysia for at least 5 consecutive years before being considered for naturalization. Normally, the naturalization process for players who were not of Malaysian origin, but had lived and worked in the country for 5 years, would be proposed by the clubs. After that, FAM would sponsor the cases of players applying for naturalization, with the reason that these players were naturalized to play for the Malaysian national team. However, FAM has now stopped this sponsorship.

In the past, Malaysia was a team with many naturalized players, most of whom were born in Australia, England, a few were born in other countries in Europe, South America, and even some were born in Africa and were not of Malaysian descent. At one point, the Malaysian team summoned more than a dozen naturalized players in this form, and in each match they used an official lineup with more than half of them being naturalized players. Currently, FAM wants to change the appearance of their national team, after realizing that the widespread use of naturalized players not only cannot help the Malaysian team become stronger, but also shows signs of weakening the domestic youth training.

The group of naturalized players who have played for the Malaysian national team recently include defender Daniel Ting (British origin), Matthew Davies (Australia), La'Vere Corbin-Ong (England), midfielder Stuart Wilkin (England), Ezequiel Aguero (Argentina), Paulo Josue (Brazil), Nooa Laine (Finland), Brendan Gan (Australia), striker Darren Lok (England), Romel Morales (Colombia), Mohamadou Sumareh (Gambia)...

Without more naturalized players in the near future, the Malaysian team will be different from what the Southeast Asian football world knows about them. For the time being, Malaysia will not have any notable reinforcements for the third qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup, so the Vietnamese team will have an easier time facing Malaysia.

Vietnam and Malaysia are in Group F of the 3rd qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Football Championship. Coach Kim Sang-sik's team will face Malaysia on June 10 away and meet them again on March 31, 2026 at home. There are two more teams in Group F, Laos and Nepal, but these two teams are not highly rated.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bong-da-malaysia-bat-ngo-dung-nhap-tich-cau-thu-moi-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-bot-au-lo-185250306134638222.htm