Looking for another Vietnamese expatriate as talented and persistent as Nguyen Filip?

The Vietnamese national team cannot afford another overseas Vietnamese player who possesses the same skill, patience, and perseverance as goalkeeper Nguyen Filip. This reality doesn't mean the "Golden Star Warriors" should give up. However, we need to change our strategy, both short-term and long-term, in exploiting the resources of overseas Vietnamese.

The value of mixed-race players

For the first time in 23 years, the Vietnamese national team suffered a heavy 0-4 defeat against a Southeast Asian representative. Previously, in the 2002 semi-final, the "Golden Star Warriors" lost by the same score against Thailand. Unlike the defeat two decades ago, Vietnam lost to Malaysia due to a contemporary reason: the emergence of high-class Malaysian players of overseas origin, who play in many top national leagues in Spain, Argentina, Turkey, and other countries.

Talented Vietnamese expatriates abroad are currently as rare as roses in the desert.

A year ago, Vietnam lost three consecutive matches against Indonesia using a similar approach to developing their internal strength. Thanks to the financial resources and connections of the President of the Indonesian Football Federation, Erik Thohir, a number of Indonesian players playing in the Netherlands and Italy joined the "Garuda" (Indonesia national team). From the World Cup qualifiers to the Asian Cup finals, Indonesia achieved absolute victories against Vietnam, leading to coach Philippe Troussier's departure.

The story of mixed-race players being naturalized and bringing success to developing football nations is not new in Southeast Asia. Singapore and the Philippines have also achieved similar goals at the regional level in the past. The development of overseas Vietnamese talent has also been ongoing in Vietnam for over 10 years. But Malaysia and Indonesia have taken this strategy to a new level. Instead of stopping at a trial basis, giving opportunities alongside developing domestic players, these two teams decided to take a shortcut by seeking and recruiting the best overseas Malaysian and Indonesian players. Based on their rapidly developing domestic talent base, Malaysia and Indonesia are confident in breaking into the top 8 teams in Asia, despite the fact that their youth player training processes still have many uncertainties and lack a solid foundation.

Nearly two days after Vietnam's convincing defeat to Malaysia, the search for overseas Vietnamese players has been a constant topic on social media. Despite conflicting opinions regarding identity, achievements, and long-term or short-term prospects, the search for and persuasion of talented overseas Vietnamese players to play for the Vietnamese national team has become an inevitable trend. Many even hope that Vietnam must achieve what Malaysia and Indonesia have done. That is, at all costs, the "Golden Star Warriors" must acquire outstanding overseas Vietnamese players, on par with the level of current players like Nguyen Filip or Cao Pendant Quang Vinh, or former Dang Van Lam.

Difficult…

The three names mentioned above are also among the best Vietnamese-born players that Vietnamese football has managed to produce in the last decade. Dang Van Lam, along with the Vietnamese national team, won the 2018 AFF Cup, reached the quarterfinals of the 2019 Asian Cup, and progressed to the third round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Nguyen Filip, although not yet as successful as his counterpart playing in the same position, has proven his class in the Czech Republic, the Europa League, and currently with Hanoi Police FC. The goalkeeper born in 1992 is a top choice in goal for the Vietnamese national team. The story is similar with Cao Pendant Quang Vinh. The former captain of the French U16 and U18 teams played for many years in Ligue 2 and MLS, and had a fairly successful first season with Hanoi Police FC.

More specifically, Nguyen Filip and Dang Van Lam possess a rare quality that few overseas Vietnamese players have achieved: patience. Nguyen Filip had to wait 9 years to receive Vietnamese citizenship. He also went through more than a year of hardship with the "Golden Star Warriors." This perseverance in Nguyen Filip is also seen in Dang Van Lam before. Behind the successes he achieved with the Vietnamese national team, the goalkeeper born in Russia also had to endure many hardships related to Vietnamese football.

The moral values ​​and dedication to the Vietnamese national team that Nguyen Filip and Dang Van Lam possess are difficult to find in Vietnamese players currently playing in Europe and America. And even without considering the aforementioned issues, simply finding high-quality players of Vietnamese origin for the national team, like those mentioned above, is proving to be a very challenging task.

Contrary to the theoretical view that talented overseas Vietnamese players should be brought back to play for the Vietnamese national team, reality shows that Vietnamese football lacks a sufficiently large and high-quality pool of mixed-race players. It is known that most overseas Vietnamese players currently only train with youth teams of well-known clubs, or play in low to very low leagues in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, France, and England. Three other countries – the United States, South Korea, and Japan – have a significant number of overseas Vietnamese players. However, most of them only participate in school leagues and sports training.

There are still a few exceptional cases of players who possess the same level of skill, such as Nguyen Filip and Cao Pendant Quang Vinh. These few also meet the requirements to play for the Vietnamese national team if they obtain Vietnamese citizenship. These include Kenneth Schmidt – a central defender for Fortuna Dusseldorf; the Bung Meng and Bung Hua Freimann brothers, currently playing for Luzern (Swiss National League); and Aymeric Faurand Tournaire – a promising young striker for Laval (Ligue 2, France).

The problem is that they don't yet have the desire to return to Vietnam to play football. This is also a barrier in the process of applying for citizenship. Conversely, V.League clubs are not overly keen on bringing these overseas Vietnamese players back to play. The reason is that the transfer fees, salaries, and signing bonuses of these players are all in the millions of dollars. With that amount of money, many teams choose foreign players, who are naturally more skilled than overseas Vietnamese players.

From subjective to objective

Looking at the broader picture, two subjective and objective issues are intertwined like two tightly woven ropes, preventing Vietnamese football from better utilizing the resources of overseas Vietnamese. Firstly, regarding overseas Vietnamese players, not all of them already possess Vietnamese citizenship. Some families of these players lack the necessary documents to support the naturalization process. Obviously, if they don't return to play in the V.League, like Cao Pendant Quang Vinh or Nguyen Filip, it will be very difficult for them to complete the legal procedures.

Secondly, the Vietnam Football Federation and V.League clubs have not proactively sought out talented overseas Vietnamese players, nor have they been willing to invest in and pursue them to persuade them to join. This is also one of the reasons why Vietnamese football lacked the strength to "lure" Chung Nguyen Do or Ibrahim Maza to the "Golden Star Warriors". Ultimately, based on discussions with their families, the two overseas Vietnamese players decided to join Bulgaria or Algeria.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/van-hoa/tim-viet-kieu-nao-gioi-va-kien-tri-nhu-nguyen-filip--i771423/