From Phan Van Santos to Nguyen Xuan Son: How many naturalized players does the Vietnamese team need?

After Nguyen Xuan Son, another player, Jason Quang Vinh (CAHN), has just completed the naturalization procedure, becoming a candidate to be called up by coach Kim Sang-sik to the Vietnam national team. Brazilian midfielder Hendrio is also expected to be the third name on the list of naturalized foreign players.

In fact, the option of using naturalized players in the Vietnam national team has been considered for a long time, especially in the period when we failed in both the SEA Games and AFF Cup. Under coach Calisto, the Vietnam national team called up a number of naturalized players during the preparation phase and friendly tournaments, such as Huynh Kesley Alves, Phan Van Santos or Dinh Hoang La...

Those who support the use of naturalized players in the Vietnamese national team often cite Singapore or recently Indonesia as examples, or further in Europe, some countries such as Germany and France also use players of color. However, it is a very clear fact that even in these countries, the controversy is still endless and sometimes flares up into a social issue. Indonesia is a clear example recently when PSSI and the country's cultural and sports management were under great pressure from the public when the national team used many naturalized players but did not achieve good results.

But not all naturalized players are as lucky and play as well as Nguyen Xuan Son. Using naturalized players is still a controversial policy in many countries.

Returning to Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Son's emotional performance at the ASEAN Cup 2024 earned him sympathy from the public. However, before that, Phan Van Santos and the VFF were heavily criticized when the Brazilian player made a mistake in a friendly tournament.

That shows that public opinion can completely change depending on the performance of the Vietnamese team. And so, the use of naturalized players, in addition to professional aspects such as the impact on youth training, opportunities for domestic players... is also a "gamble" with a high degree of risk.

The use of naturalized players also needs to be placed in a long-term strategy of VFF as an aspect mentioned above, which is the stage of training young people, developing internal strength to conquer big goals. Fortunately, it seems that VFF fully evaluates this aspect. VFF Vice President Tran Anh Tu once affirmed that Vietnamese football cannot only rely on naturalized players, the solution is only set in the context that it is the trend of Southeast Asian and world football.

From this perspective, it seems like a short-term solution, and the use of naturalized players will be moderate, avoiding creating major conflicts of opinion in society.

Nguyen Phong

Source: https://tienphong.vn/tu-phan-van-santos-den-nguyen-xuan-son-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-can-bao-nhieu-cau-thu-nhap-tich-post1743099.tpo