What is needed for a naturalization strategy?

nhập tịch - Ảnh 1. — Elkeson never had success with Chinese football - Photo: Reuters

Like the President of the Indonesian Football Federation, Erick Thohir, Prince Ismail possesses assets worth billions of USD.

Money can't buy everything.

At 41 years old, this prince has spent over 10 years managing football in various roles within the Football Association of Malaysia and owns currently Malaysia's strongest club, Johor Darul Tazim (commonly known as JDT). The lesson from Indonesia's naturalization process shows that, to achieve results quickly, individuals like Mr. Thohir or Prince Ismail are indispensable.

But is the problem simply about money? This is because over the past 10 years, China has poured approximately $30 billion USD into football at all levels. From buying foreign players for the China Super League (CSL), paying exorbitant salaries, naturalizing players, to building impressive football academies... Yet, to this day, Chinese football still hasn't seen a future.

In 2015, China launched the "World Cup 2050 Champion" project. This project is divided into three phases, with specific objectives:

1. Short-term (up to 2020): Football becomes an attractive entertainment market, while also being widely popularized in the education system. 20,000 academies and 70,000 football fields will be built. There will be 50 million football players (children and adults).

2. Medium-term (up to 2030): The national team becomes one of the strongest teams in Asia. China becomes the host of the World Cup or at least participates regularly.

3. Long-term (until 2050): China becomes a world football superpower and wins the men's World Cup.

China had it all – determination, money, and a well-thought-out plan for this project. But to date, it's safe to assume the project has been a near-total failure, at least in the medium term.

Another example is the UAE and Qatar – two football nations that have massively naturalized Brazilian players. Similar to China, clubs in the UAE and Qatar are willing to pay tens of millions of dollars in salaries to star players, along with huge signing bonuses. But, like China, their national teams have only achieved average results, without any breakthroughs.

Money needs to be used wisely.

Compared to Indonesia or Malaysia today, China, the UAE, and Qatar pursue two different naturalization policies.

Both Indonesia and Malaysia are encouraging overseas players to return and play for their home teams. In contrast, China, the UAE, and Qatar choose players with no blood relation and wait for them to be naturalized after playing for five years in their respective leagues.

For China, their plan is a broad strategy encompassing football development, enhancing entertainment value, expanding the sport, increasing its depth, and more. But the problem is... money. China doesn't lack money, but too much money is a different story.

Take Brazilian striker Alex Teixeira as an example. Jiangsu Suning spent $60 million to bring him from Shakhtar Donetsk. This came with a contract worth $10 million over five years. After just five years, China had paid $110 million for Teixeira.

But Teixeira still didn't choose to become a Chinese citizen, and his demands were too high. By the time he was eligible for citizenship, Teixeira was over 30 years old, his performance had declined, yet he still demanded a salary of $10 million. To obtain Teixeira's citizenship, China would probably have to pay up to $200 million – an absurd figure. The path they chose was therefore too long and too risky...

In contrast, Indonesia and Malaysia, despite being considered short-sighted, are very well suited to the current situation. In theory, they pay virtually nothing to naturalized stars – who already earn millions of dollars in European football.

The positive aspect is that Audero, Diks, and Hilgers can still play at the highest level and maintain the momentum of their careers. This is something that Teixeira and Elkeson lacked when they accepted moves to play for a football league far below their level.

The story of Chinese football illustrates that money is needed for naturalization. But having a lot of money isn't enough…

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/can-gi-cho-chien-luoc-nhap-tich-2025061310361359.htm