The Philippine national team does not use naturalized players like Xuan Son.

In his latest statement, Freddy Gonzalez affirmed that the Philippine national team only uses local players or foreign players of Filipino descent to compete internationally.

“I would never naturalize someone who has no Filipino ancestry. That’s not something I want to do. I believe we have enough talented Filipino players both domestically and internationally, so there’s no need to go down that road and try to naturalize foreigners who have no connection to the country, no Filipino blood, and no relationship to the Philippines, ” the head of the Philippine national team emphasized.

The only time the Philippines used a naturalized player without ancestral roots in their national men's football team was with Spanish striker Bienvenido Maranon in 2021. The striker scored 4 goals in 15 appearances.

The Philippines national team has reached the semi-finals of the 2024 AFF Cup.

“ I’m not criticizing what they did to Maranon. He was a brilliant player. I wish we had someone like him,” said Freddy Gonzalez.

"However, that's not what I'm concerned about. Bringing in a Spanish player or someone else and turning them into a Filipino is not what we want. We only want to naturalize and use players with Filipino blood."

Team manager Freddy Gonzalez stated that the core squad for the 2024 AFF Cup of the Philippines national team will be retained for the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers and will be supplemented later. In the 2024 AFF Cup, the Philippines reached the semi-finals but were eliminated after losing to Thailand 3-4 over two legs.

With the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers falling within FIFA Days, Mr. Gonzalez stated that VfL Bochum striker Gerritt Holtmann will return to play for the Philippine national team. According to the published schedule, the Philippines will face Maldives in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers on March 25th.

Mr. Ngoc

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/tuyen-philippines-khong-dung-cau-thu-nhap-tich-giong-xuan-son-ar919548.html