Be careful about naturalization
In the second match of the 2027 Asian Cup final qualifiers on the evening of June 10, the Vietnam team suffered a heavy 0-4 loss to a team with 9 naturalized Malaysian players.
Before this match, the "Golden Star Warriors" had been unbeaten for 11 consecutive years against Malaysia (won 7, drew 1). Thanks to the rapid naturalization of players in large quantities, Malaysia has made changes against the Vietnam team.
This raises the question of whether to avoid falling behind, should the Vietnamese team seek and naturalize like Malaysia and Indonesia?
At the press conference on the afternoon of June 17, President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Tran Quoc Tuan said: "After losing to Malaysia, I was also exhausted and lost sleep for 2 nights due to many thoughts.
The story is not just about failure on the pitch but how we will develop in the future. We analyzed many models and many football backgrounds that have naturalized strong players and what are the consequences," said Mr. Tuan.
According to the VFF President, if following the naturalization trend to quickly strengthen the national team, Vietnamese football will face the risk of losing the internal development momentum.
Mr. Tuan analyzed: "The team can get stronger at one time but the domestic system will weaken. When there is no longer competition for opportunities to join the national team, domestic players will no longer have the motivation to practice.
We are persistent in the path of strong development from internal resources, calculating, consolidating, and supplementing must be appropriate, not creating consequences like other countries have done. We have plans but we need to be patient."
Focus on youth training
Instead of following another national path by naturalizing a series of players, VFF still persistently pursues a more sustainable direction, which is to invest in a youth training system, building a foundation of internal strength from the roots. This is considered a long-term path but the only one to create a unique identity for Vietnamese football.
Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan said that many domestic clubs, even in the First Division, are making strong changes, with systematic, strategic and turning point training plans.
"There is a First Division team with a breakthrough project and idea, helping football to be sustainable, the colors of the flag, the thinking and orientation come from the love of football, wanting to make the national team stronger in the future", the VFF President shared.
Not only domestically, VFF also aims to send young players to international training. President Tran Quoc Tuan revealed that VFF is and is about to have agreements with the Japan Football Association (JFA), the Chinese Football Association (CFA), to help the U23, U20 and U17 teams to go to training and play friendly matches.
Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan affirmed: "Only developing young clubs is the foundation. The national team needs to be strong but also have domestic motivation.
There must be more friendly tournaments, fighting, many training sessions abroad for the players to develop and improve their level. We will invest from U15, send players to train in Europe to look forward to future tournaments".
According to information from VFF leaders, Vietnamese football certainly needs to have identity and maintain sustainable strength. Therefore, to have a truly strong team, there is no other path than to invest from the root.
