Hendrio may miss the first leg of V.League 2025/26

Hendrio joined Hanoi after leaving Nam Dinh. Photo: Hanoi Football Club .

Hendrio joined Hanoi after leaving Nam Dinh . Hendrio's contract runs until 2028.

With the 2024/25 mid-season transfer window now closed, Hendrio will only be eligible to play from next season. Currently, Hendrio is training and waiting for the day to officially play for his new team.

However, one of the important agreements in this contract is that Hanoi will carry out the procedures to help Hendrio obtain Vietnamese citizenship. With the desire to wear the national team jersey like his former teammate Nguyen Xuan Son, Hendrio proactively expressed his wishes and received support from Hanoi. In the opposite direction, Hanoi also hopes to have another quality naturalized player.

According to some information, as of June 19, Hanoi is actively promoting the naturalization procedure for Hendrio. The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) also sent a report to the Department of Sports and Physical Training to support this case.

Hendrio came to Vietnam in December 2020 and started playing for Binh Dinh in January 2021. He played 2 seasons for the team before moving to Nam Dinh in the 2023 season.

The Brazilian player scored a total of 16 goals and 21 assists after 53 appearances for the team in the South. In addition to his stable expertise, Hendrio also speaks Vietnamese quite well, showing his ability to integrate into the Vietnamese football environment in the long term.

Hendrio may miss the first leg of V.League 2025/26 due to naturalization procedures. Photo: Hanoi Football Club.

According to the 2008 Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Hendrio is only eligible for naturalization in December 2025, after 5 years of legal residence in Vietnam. However, he is expected to be granted citizenship earlier, as was the case with Nguyen Xuan Son before. This is important for Hanoi, as it directly affects how they register Hendrio's playing status for the 2025/26 season.

According to current professional football regulations, each player can only maintain one status throughout the season. That is one of the following statuses: domestic player, foreign player, Vietnamese player of foreign origin, or foreign player of Vietnamese origin.

If Hendrio is registered as a foreign player, Hanoi will be forced to maintain this status until the end of the season. At the same time, the capital team will only have 3/4 of the foreign player slots left to use.

If Hanoi registers Hendrio as a foreign-born Vietnamese player to keep all four other foreign player slots, they will not be able to use Hendrio until he completes the naturalization procedure. This means that Hanoi will not have his service for most of the first leg of the 2025/26 V.League.

This happened to Nguyen Xuan Son at the beginning of the 2024/25 season. Because Nam Dinh registered him as a naturalized player, but did not have citizenship at that time, Xuan Son could not play in the first 3 rounds of the season.

Source: https://znews.vn/hendrio-co-the-lo-luot-di-vleague-202526-post1562401.html