Attack in overseas Vietnamese players
The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) still has a search department and contacts many overseas Vietnamese players around the world. Due to the historical and cultural characteristics of the nation, the source of overseas Vietnamese players mainly comes from France, the US and some Eastern European countries.
For more than 10 years, all the best quality players of Vietnamese origin who have ever joined the Vietnam national team have come from this area. These include Nguyen Filip, Mac Hong Quan (Czech Republic), Dang Van Robert, Patrik Le Giang (Slovakia), Cao Pendant Quang Vinh (France) or Lee Nguyen (USA). There are many others, but they are not willing to contribute or have guaranteed professional qualifications.
Previously, Yohan Cabaye - a French player playing for PSG expressed his love for his homeland of Vietnam. But he of course has no intention of returning to his grandmother's hometown to contribute.
Similarly, Ibrahim Maza has recently been the case. The midfielder's mother is Vietnamese but he plays for Algeria - where he borns part of his father's blood.
In addition, Boubacar Kamara - Aston Villa star is rumored to be of Vietnamese origin but he has never confirmed it. Kenneth Schmidt - has a Vietnamese mother but his Bundesliga playing opportunities are wide open.
Some others are willing to return home but their qualifications have not been met. Coach Park Hang-seo once shook his head with Alexander Dang. Recently, the Czech Republic U18 player - Andrej Nguyen An Khanh has not had anything more special than domestic players. Some other young players who were called up to the national team to "test" were unsuccessful.
To naturalize players without Vietnamese blood?
The most successful naturalized player in the history of Vietnamese football is named Nguyen Xuan Son, even though he has only competed in the 2024 ASEAN Cup. In fact, if we could take advantage of naturalized stars without Vietnamese blood such as Hoang Vu Samson, Phan Van Santos, Huynh Kesley Alves... the Vietnamese team would certainly be stronger.
But at the moment, VFF wants to naturalize players like Xuan Son is not easy at all. According to FIFA regulations, for each player who does not have any contact with the national team, to be naturalized, they must have lived in this country for 5 years to be eligible to play.
According to the above regulations, only Hendrio Araujo (Hanoi), Gordon Rimario, Gustavo Santos (Thanh Hoa), Jose Pinto (Binh Dinh), Janclesio (Binh Duong) and Geovane Magno (Hong Linh Ha Tinh) can immediately be naturalized and play for the Vietnam national team.
These players themselves have their own problems. Gordon Rimario has just suffered a very serious injury and is out for the whole season. Janclesio and Pinto have declined, making it difficult for them to play for the Vietnam national team. Even Gustavo and Hendrio have shown signs of slowing down, only Geovane Magno partly meets the requirements.
However, these players only played for Brazil's lower leagues before coming to Vietnam and becoming stars. Nguyen Xuan Son also took the same path. V.League has not had the conditions to welcome good enough stars, keep them and then naturalize them like Malaysia and Indonesia are doing.
Perhaps, Vietnamese football must balance both naturalization, finding overseas Vietnamese players and training young people to compete fairly with opponents Indonesia, Malaysia and partly Thailand.
