Malaysia, Indonesia and the dark side of naturalization policy

TPO - Although achieving some results in the short term, Malaysian, Philippine and even Indonesian football... in the long term all face many questions about their development direction.

The victory in the final match of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship against U23 Indonesia on the evening of July 29 was the third consecutive championship of the Vietnam U23 team. Mr. Kim Sang-sik's team showed a resilient spirit, overcoming difficulties, receiving praise from Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh .

In the past six years, Vietnam has won the SEA Games gold medal twice, the U23 Southeast Asian Championship three times and many other achievements at the youth level. This is the result of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF)'s (VFF) focus on youth training throughout, with active investment from many youth training centers such as The Cong Viettel , Hanoi, SLNA, HAGL...

U23 Vietnam crowned Southeast Asian U23 champion for the third time (Huu Pham)

It is no coincidence that when there is pressure to increase the use of naturalized foreign players in the Vietnamese national team to counter the regional trend, there are still voices warning the VFF about the long-term impact of this strategy on the development of Vietnamese football, especially youth football. VFF President Tran Quoc Tuan also said that when using naturalized players, Vietnam needs to consider its own context, including cultural and identity factors in addition to professional factors.

Singapore won the AFF Cup twice with a policy of using naturalized players, but football in this country has since declined. Similarly, Indonesia has achieved short-term results, but the PSSI (Indonesian Football Federation) is under great pressure when the national team loses. Malaysia just defeated Vietnam in the final qualifying round for the 2027 Asian Cup, but the young players have not performed well.

The young players promise to be a potential generation aiming to conquer new challenges of Vietnamese football (photo by Huu Pham)

More importantly, the quality of naturalized players in Southeast Asia is not enough to help national teams compete when entering the continental arena.

Winning in football must be associated with cultural identity and national spirit to create a positive effect spreading throughout the community. Using naturalization policies must ensure that they do not negatively impact the long-term development of internal strength.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/malaysia-indonesia-va-mat-trai-cua-chinh-sach-nhap-tich-post1764821.tpo