Vietnam's opponent introduces 2 brand new naturalized stars in Asian qualifiers

To prepare for the final qualifying match of the 2027 Asian Cup against Nepal on March 25, coach Peter Cklamovski called up two naturalized players, Hector Hevel and Gabriel Palmero, to the Malaysian team.

Malaysia is considered the biggest opponent of the Vietnam team in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

These are also the two latest naturalized players to be called up to the Malaysian national team.

Midfielder Hector Hevel was born in the Netherlands and currently plays for Portuguese second division club Portimoense. This season he has made 6 appearances for the Portuguese team.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Palmero is of Spanish descent. The 23-year-old left-back plays for the country's fourth-tier club CD Tenerife B.

According to player Syamer Kutty Abba, Hector Hevel and Gabriel Palmero both have good skills and promise to help increase the strength of the Malaysian team.

Previously, Malaysian media reported that the country's Football Federation is planning to naturalize a series of players to prepare for major tournaments in the future.

But so far, this plan is still going quite slowly.

In the final qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup, the black and yellow team is in a group with Vietnam, Nepal and Laos.

In this group, Vietnam is Malaysia's biggest opponent. Meanwhile, Laos and Nepal are considered much weaker.

But at the moment, Malaysia is not playing well and their elimination from the group stage of the AFF Cup 2024 is proof.

Therefore, many opinions say that Malaysia does not have much hope of competing for a ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup finals with the Vietnamese team.