Malaysia's naturalized stars at a training session before the match against Vietnam - Photo: ANH KHOA
Up to this point, all the press knows about the Malaysian team is the list of 30 players they announced to the media. Of these, nearly 20 are naturalized players from Europe and South America, or of Malaysian origin.
The total value of the squad of these 30 names is up to more than 15 million euros, including many million-dollar players such as Gabriel Palmero (Tenerife, Spain), Facundo Garcés (Alaves, Spain), Hector Hevel (Portimonense, Portugal), João Figueiredo (Istanbul Başakşehir, Türkiye), Imanol Machuca (Vélez Sarsfield, Argentina)...
Seeing this massive influx of naturalized stars, many Southeast Asian football fans suspected that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was illegally naturalizing players to quickly strengthen the "Harimau Tigers". Indonesian fans even mocked Malaysia and demanded to bring the matter to FIFA.
In response to the strong reaction from fans in the region, after the second friendly match with Cape Verde on June 3, all information about the Malaysian team was covered up.
The FAM website and the official FAM Facebook page rarely update information about the team. The Malaysian media also does not have many articles about coach Peter Cklamovski and his team. Occasionally, there are just interviews with familiar players.
Holgado is one of the notable naturalized players of the Malaysian team - Photo: ANH KHOA
On June 5, there was a stream of information confirming that the Malaysian team had finalized the list of 26 players, in which many million-dollar naturalized stars were suddenly absent. Many Southeast Asian fans believe that the Malaysian team is afraid of violating FIFA regulations, so they are not in a hurry to use these naturalized players.
But in the official training session before the match against Vietnam, the Malaysian team "showed" all 30 players including the newly naturalized players that Southeast Asian fans were suspicious of. Coach Peter Cklamovski even did not let the players wear numbered shirts, completely hiding himself before the match against Vietnam.
Perhaps Malaysia has thrown a smokescreen to make things even more confusing and messy. Coach Peter Cklamovski will definitely have to drop 7 names to reduce the list to 23 players as required. Many naturalized players will definitely not be in the Malaysian team to meet Vietnam tonight. That is because there are too few local players in the squad and if they are dropped, Coach Peter Cklamovski will certainly face criticism.
However, the "hiding" tactic until the last minute made the Malaysian and Vietnamese media confused, bewildered and offside. That also made it difficult for the Vietnamese team to prepare and evaluate the opponent. Coach Peter Cklamovski proudly affirmed that keeping information about the team's strength a secret was a great way to defeat the Vietnamese team.
It has been 10 years since Malaysia has only drawn and lost to Vietnam. They are using every possible way to improve their head-to-head record, thereby aiming for a ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup. No matter what tricks the opponent uses, the Vietnam team only needs to focus on themselves.
*Tuoi Tre Online will update the Malaysian team's squad when there is the latest information before the match against Vietnam takes place at 8pm tonight, June 10.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chieu-doc-cua-tuyen-malaysia-truoc-tran-gap-viet-nam-20250610093441134.htm
![[Podcast] Which subjects are proposed by the State Bank to be given 0% interest loans?](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/402x226/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/6/10/6a8c2a275c9d470fbfbd4d4a6307e05f)
Comment (0)