Quality piece for the team

VHO - Brazilian midfielder Hendrio Araujo da Silva has just received the decision to naturalize as Vietnamese citizen under the name Do Hoang Hen. The event concludes a long journey of integration and opens up another valuable tactical option for coach Kim Sang-sik in the 2026 target period.

Do Hoang Hen on the day of receiving Vietnamese citizenship

During the decision receiving ceremony, Do Hoang Hen shared in Vietnamese: “I am very happy, proud and extremely grateful! I have officially become a Vietnamese citizen… I aspire to contribute to Vietnamese football, will try harder to be worthy of everyone’s trust and contribute my best to Hanoi Football Club as well as Vietnamese football”.

The short, clear commitment in Vietnamese not only concludes the legal procedure, but also affirms the choice of sports identity of a player who has been with V-League for nearly 5 years.

Journey to become “Vietnamese”: Language, culture, professional discipline

There are two parallel axes that help to clearly visualize Do Hoang Hen's integration journey. The first is language and culture. Over the past two years, Hen has systematically learned Vietnamese from daily communication, to answering interviews, and discussing tactics in the locker room. He said he memorized the Vietnamese National Anthem after only two weeks of self-study and often sings it during competitions.

Language is not only the key to integration, but also a “soft commitment” to respecting the professional environment and local life. It is this detail that makes Hen’s image create special sympathy in the fan community: unobtrusive integration, proven by daily habits.

Second is professional discipline. Hen has maintained a vegetarian diet for about six years, combined with nutritional supplements to ensure his physical condition and recovery ability. This is an uncommon choice for professional players in the V-League, but clearly reflects how he adjusts his lifestyle to a tight match schedule.

Physical endurance combined with professional efficiency has been shown through data: In the 2022 season, Hen contributed to Binh Dinh winning third place after 16 years; in the 2023-2024 period, he exploded in Nam Dinh with 12 goals and 13 assists, making an important contribution to the V-League championship. Accumulated in nearly 5 years, Hen has 29 goals and 31 assists in domestic competitions, a number that is significant enough to affirm his position.

From Vietnamese classes to gyms, from street stalls to training grounds, the journey shows a fundamental rule of integration: good professional skills need to be “wrapped” by social skills, communication skills, cultural understanding, and discipline. Hen has taken that path convincingly.

At the national team level, international regulations require naturalized players to have at least 5 years of continuous residence/play in the country they are applying to play for, starting from the time they register for professional football activities. For Do Hoang Hen, the starting point is January 12, 2021 (the date of signing the contract in Vietnam). Therefore, he is only eligible to play for the national team from January 12, 2026.

Final upgrade plan and operating rhythm

Technically, Hen is an attacking midfielder/conductor who can play low as a right-sided number 8 or high as a number 10. Hen's goal-scoring stats suggest two outstanding qualities: First, his ability to make a difference in tight spaces at the back of the pitch. Second, his passing options. Further analysis shows that when the opponent actively blocks him, Hen tends to pull the full-back or defensive midfielder out of position with a release-turn-break rhythm, opening the door for the striker to move into the space behind.

If Xuan Son returns to his best form, the Vietnamese team will have a true “destination - starting point” pair, a No. 9 who sticks to the penalty area, presses and finishes in a variety of ways; a conductor who knows how to place the ball in the right area where Son can make the final touch. Reference statistics from their time together at the club level show that Hen has assisted Xuan Son 11 times, this is not a coincidence, but comes from understanding each other’s positions and movement habits.

In the formation that coach Kim Sang-sik is using 4-2-3-1, it can switch to 3-2-5 when in possession. Hen’s No. 10 role will link the two half-spaces, allowing the full-backs to overlap more strongly because there is a reliable “transfer station” behind them. When a change of pace is needed, the team can push to the high ball - early cross option, with Hen being the one to decide the landing point and choose the “door” (near post/far post) for Son or the winger to cut in.

The naturalization of Do Hoang Hen shows a mature process at the personnel policy level, which is open to welcoming quality human resources, strict in terms of conditions and evaluation, and clear in terms of usage criteria. In the 2026 period, the immediate future is the next match of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers against Malaysia and the 2026 ASEAN Cup, the Vietnamese team needs to both build and use - build the next generation and immediately use the pieces that can upgrade the "final stage".

Here, Hen is not a “magic wand”, but a track for a diversified human resources strategy: Adding a true conductor alongside existing options; adding a voice that has chosen Vietnamese identity through concrete actions; adding a professional standard recognized by the community.

From a skilled foreign player to a Vietnamese citizen, Do Hoang Hen has gone through the integration path with very “Vietnamese” steps: Learning the language, understanding the culture, maintaining discipline in life and proving his worth through effectiveness in battle. Ahead is the “final test” at Hanoi FC, then the milestone of January 12, 2026 for the national team. If he continues to maintain his form and tactical suitability, Hen will not only be a beautiful story, but will also be a piece to upgrade the organization and finishing of the Vietnamese team.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/manh-ghep-chat-luong-cho-doi-tuyen-176237.html