An Asian team calls up 8 Brazilian players for World Cup qualifiers

The UAE (United Arab Emirates) team impressed when calling up 10 naturalized players, including 8 of Brazilian origin, for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers taking place at the end of March.

Fabio Lima (number 10) is one of the UAE's notable Brazilian stars - Photo: MSN

Naturalization is not a strange thing in Asian football, but mass naturalization like UAE is really something that attracts attention.

Earlier this week, the national teams officially gathered to prepare for the international matches taking place in the middle of the week. In particular, UAE became the name that received the most attention from Asian football with a series of new recruits of Brazilian origin.

UAE head coach Paulo Bento, a former Portuguese player, has named 26 players for this call-up, 10 of whom are naturalised players .

Unlike Indonesia - a football country that summons stars born abroad but with the blood of an archipelago, UAE uses the method of naturalizing players who have lived in their native country for 5 years (the deadline set by FIFA to allow a player to be eligible to play football in a country other than his birthplace, as in the case of Nguyen Xuan Son of the Vietnam team).

Among the UAE's 10 foreign players, there are two people of African origin, Ivorian central defender Kouame Autonne and English midfielder Mackenzie Hunt.

The remaining 8 players are all from Brazil, including 2 defenders Marcus Meloni, Lucas Pimenta, 3 midfielders Fabio Lima, Jonatas Santos, Luan Pereira and 3 strikers Caio Canedo, Bruno de Oliveira, Caio Lucas.

Among them, Caio Canedo and Fabio Lima are veterans who have fought for the UAE team for many years. They played in the National Championship 10 years ago, so they have been eligible to play for the past 5 years.

On the contrary, Pimenta, Santos, Pereira and Lucas are new recruits who have just completed the procedure. They played in the UAE when they were in their U20s, and are still quite young.

This shows that the UAE's player naturalization policy has been in place for more than 5 years, when the country's clubs massively brought in quality foreign players, mainly from Brazil.

In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the UAE is in the same group with Iran, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea. After 6 matches, they are ranked 3rd with 10 points, 3 points behind the second-placed Uzbekistan.

The top two teams will qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup, while the third and fourth-placed teams will continue to compete in the fourth qualifying round to compete for the remaining tickets.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/mot-doi-tuyen-chau-a-goi-8-cau-thu-brazil-du-vong-loai-world-cup-20250317173048295.htm