U23 Malaysia eliminates many naturalized players, coach unexpectedly predicts championship team

(Dan Tri) - Coach Nafuzi Zain has just announced the list of 30 U23 Malaysia players preparing for the U23 Southeast Asian tournament. He explained the reason for this decision.

Today (June 25), Coach Nafuzi Zain announced the preliminary list of 30 Malaysian U23 players to prepare for the U23 Southeast Asian tournament. Notably, he only called up two naturalized players, Fergus Tierney and Ziad El Basheer.

Coach Nafuzi Zain used many players who had never played in the Malaysian national championship to compete in the Southeast Asian U23 tournament (Photo: FAM).

Both players were not on the list of the Malaysian team that played against the Vietnamese team in the recent 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Fergus Tierney has a Scottish father and a Malaysian mother. The young striker is playing for Sabah FC in the Malaysian Premier League. Meanwhile, Ziad El Basheer has a Sudanese father and a Malaysian mother. The player born in 2003 is also playing for domestic club Selangor.

Coach Nafuzi Zain was expected to call up many other naturalized players such as Gabriel Palmero (Spanish origin), Nooa Laine (Finnish origin)... but in the end he crossed these players out of the list.

Recently, the U23 Malaysian players attended a training camp called “Elite Games”. Coach Nafuzi Zain prioritized calling up those who had never played in the Malaysian national championship for training. After that, 16 new faces were selected by him from Elite Games and combined with players who had experience playing in the Malaysian league.

Coach Nafuzi Zain assessed that U23 Indonesia is the brightest candidate for the Southeast Asian U23 championship, not U23 Vietnam (the team that won the last two tournaments).

Speaking about the decision to call up many inexperienced players, coach Nafuzi Zain said: “I am very satisfied with The Elite Games. I think the program's objectives have been achieved. I have had the opportunity to observe and evaluate the young players carefully.

We don’t call up many players to compete in the Malaysian national championship because we know their abilities. So this time, I want to test out some new faces. 60% of the players who participated in the Elite Games have been called up to the Malaysia U23 team.”

Talking about the goal of U23 Malaysia, coach Nafuzi Zain said: “This is my first tournament as a coach in an international tournament. The experience of working at a club and the national team is different.

Our goal is to reach the final but with the current situation, the team will focus on playing one match at a time. The first match against the Philippines is very important. Brunei is also a difficult challenge before we enter the final match of the group stage against Indonesia.

For now, we want to get a ticket to the semi-finals. After that, the whole team will calculate the ticket to the final."

Coach Nafuzi Zain assessed that U23 Indonesia is the strongest candidate for the championship. He added: “The host country Indonesia has a big advantage in this tournament as they will play at Bung Karno Stadium. In my opinion, U23 Indonesia is the strongest candidate for the championship. However, we are ready to face all challenges.”

The U23 Southeast Asian Championship will kick off from July 15-29. In this tournament, U23 Vietnam will be in the same group with Laos and Cambodia. U23 Vietnam is the champion of the last two U23 Southeast Asian Championships.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/u23-malaysia-loai-nhieu-cau-thu-nhap-tich-hlv-du-doan-bat-ngo-doi-vo-dich-20250625192933935.htm