Stop being so dismissive about naturalization.

When Nguyen Xuan Son shone at the 2024 AFF Cup, many mocked the Vietnamese national team for using a Brazilian player with whom they had no blood relation.

Nguyen Xuan Son was granted Vietnamese national team citizenship despite not being related by blood - Photo: NK

Vietnam also naturalizes citizens in many sports.

But the law is the law. FIFA has spent nearly 20 years continuously revising the rules related to naturalization. They established a rule that a player is entitled to represent a national team after having lived there for five years.

Nguyen Xuan Son, like the Brazilian-born stars from China, the UAE, and Qatar, is eligible to play for the Vietnamese national team according to FIFA regulations.

Many Vietnamese fans defended Nguyen Xuan Son and the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) at the time. Therefore, we now need to treat Malaysia's situation with respect.

Thai Son Kwiatkowski is also a naturalized athlete who has brought success to Vietnamese sports - Photo: TP

There are two most common paths to naturalization. The first is the aforementioned path, which allows any player in the world to become a naturalized citizen – provided they have lived in Vietnam for 5 years.

Secondly, there's the option of using players from overseas. And let's not forget, Vietnamese football also has players like Nguyen Filip and Dang Van Lam who also obtained Vietnamese citizenship through this route.

Broadly speaking, Vietnamese sports also have many similar naturalized overseas Vietnamese athletes. These include Thai Son Kwiatkowski, who has both Vietnamese and Polish ancestry, and the Truong Thao My and Truong Thao Vy sisters in basketball...

Don't judge too quickly.

Many fans scoffed at the Malaysian naturalized players who took to the field last night, saying they "showed no sign of being Malaysian," citing their tall stature and fair skin as prime examples.

But let's not rush to judge things we don't know the full story of.

In 2010, a Nigerian couple living in England unexpectedly gave birth to a baby who was completely white.

Many people jokingly suggested that the husband should question his wife's fidelity, but even so, the idea of ​​an African mother giving birth to a white baby is hard to believe.

But it's true. The world of genetics has countless things that scientists are still diligently trying to understand today.

It is not uncommon for a child to have mixed ancestry and then possess physical characteristics completely different from those of their father or mother.

Morocco wrote a fairytale story at the World Cup thanks to its overseas players - Photo: REUTERS

Returning to the topic of naturalization, it's an extremely popular trend in football today. Morocco wrote a fairytale at the 2022 World Cup with a squad where half of the players were expatriates from European countries.

FIFA, UEFA, or AFC can only rely on documentation to determine a player's lineage. If the documentation is in order, fans must trust and accept the rules of the game.

And it's also unfair to criticize Malaysia for using 9 naturalized players, while Vietnam only used 2 or 3. Malaysia and Indonesia simply made very good use of what the rules allowed.

The UAE called up eight Brazilian players, plus one or two others of African descent, for the World Cup qualifiers. Yet, they still couldn't beat Uzbekistan to secure their qualification.

China has spent between $2-3 billion USD on transfers, salaries, and signing bonuses for 7-8 naturalized Brazilian players over the past decade. Yet, they still succumbed to Indonesia's short-term naturalization plan.

Mass naturalization and spending a lot of money won't necessarily build a strong team. Football is much more complex than athletics (Middle Eastern countries have won many athletics gold medals at the Asian Games thanks to naturalizing players from Africa).

And in that game, whoever had the better strategy won. Don't belittle your opponent just because they did exceptionally well.

Back to the topic

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hay-thoi-de-biu-chuyen-nhap-tich-20250611102911365.htm