Stories from the past
In 2008, the Vietnamese team had a friendly match with the Brazilian Olympic team at My Dinh Stadium. Fans were looking forward to seeing the world's top stars compete with the Vietnamese team.
In addition, the performance of naturalized goalkeeper Phan Van Santos also received much public attention. But before the ball rolled, Phan Van Santos caused controversy when he freely sang the Brazilian national anthem while wearing the Vietnamese national team jersey.
Foreign players of course become naturalized with the desire to play longer and keep a higher transfer price in V.League. However, their off-field goals cannot be brought up in the media.
Many years ago, Dinh Hoang La (Lyvtoka Myloka - originally from Ukraine) ruined his career because of the controversy of “receiving money to obtain citizenship”. Binh Duong and Hoang La created an unprecedented scandal.
Hoang Vu Samson is recognized for his talent, but his playing attitude makes no coach dare to put this striker on the Vietnam national team.
More than ten years ago, Samson punched a Hai Phong player and kicked Huy Hoang in the face from Song Lam Nghe An. Recently, after repeatedly hitting him and being internally punished by Thanh Hoa, he immediately took inappropriate action and had a dispute with the Thanh Hoa team, both legally and in the press.
In addition, many foreign soldiers who come to Vietnam bring with them an irresponsible lifestyle. Having a better income than in their home country, they spend a lot of money on useless pleasures. Without being controlled, foreign soldiers, when they have Vietnamese citizenship, still live a disorganized life and become a "thorn" in the eyes of many teammates.
Need to maintain image and be responsible
When Rafaelson got Vietnamese nationality and chose the name Nguyen Xuan Son, many people hoped that he would not get bogged down in the old story. The striker born in 1997 was expected to contribute to the Vietnamese national team for a long time, not just play football and earn money at Nam Dinh club.
To get a place in the national team, not only Vietnamese players but also their naturalized colleagues must maintain their personal image and live according to social standards. There are many cases where players are removed from the national team because of off-field violations. They even get carried away and lose their careers.
Vietnam really needs Rafaelson and this player needs to be aware of the challenges for him not only around the round ball. However, we can more or less believe that the Nam Dinh star can do this.
In more than 5 years of playing in Vietnam, Rafaelson has never left any negative reputation in his daily life or behavior on the field. He is considered a sociable person, with understanding and adaptability to Vietnamese culture.
Rafaelson can look to Claudecir or Huynh Kesley Alves as examples. They are both from Brazil, have lived in Vietnam for many years and use Vietnamese as an important language. Only when the cultural barrier is removed can Rafaelson truly integrate into the Vietnamese team.
