After 14 years, the Vietnamese national team has a naturalized striker, Nguyen Xuan Son. For the first time, a player without Vietnamese bloodline plays in an official tournament. Not disappointing expectations, the Brazilian striker scored 7 goals and 2 assists, winning the title of "Top scorer" and "Best player" of the tournament after only 5 matches on the field.
Not only bringing a new breeze to the playing style of the "Golden Star Warriors", Xuan Son also helps to dispel some of the previous doubts and prejudices about naturalized players in Vietnam.
He is a new catalyst that attracts more attention from the audience to the team in the ASEAN Cup. Nguyen Xuan Son is loved and has great affection from Vietnamese fans. He is mentioned as an important factor helping the Vietnamese team lift the ASEAN Cup 2024 championship trophy after many years of waiting.
The concerns when the striker of Nam Dinh team suffered a serious injury in the second leg of the final match in Thailand, the attention and support of the community during Xuan Son's surgery have proven that this naturalized player has been very positively received.
To achieve this, we must mention the fact that the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has introduced an open-door policy for naturalized players. However, according to Mr. Tran Anh Tu - Vice President of VFF, Xuan Son's acceptance is due to his personality as well as the right timing.
"The timing of Xuan Son's appearance is very reasonable. He has a different skin color but is very sociable. Xuan Son's personality helps this player integrate quickly. In the national team, Xuan Son lives like a Vietnamese person, there is no difference.
"After naturalizing Xuan Son and bringing him to the national team, it will be much easier for other naturalized players to join the national team in the future. Fans will no longer discriminate or have many opposing opinions," Mr. Tran Anh Tu emphasized.
The Vice President of VFF said that naturalization is now a trend that no one can resist. However, VFF still determines that youth training is the most important. Vietnamese football will avoid following the path of Indonesia, where too much naturalization will lose its identity, and this will also affect youth training. Naturalization must be reasonable and within a certain level.
Using naturalized players in Vietnam is something that will probably continue to be done. Fans will also have a new, more positive and open perspective after the cases of Nguyen Filip or Xuan Son.
However, the story will still be about timing and suitability. Good players like Xuan Son have appeared in Vietnam, but integration is more important. To have a strong team, it is necessary to unite the players right from the field.
The naturalized strikers themselves also need to show fans that they have no distance and truly want to contribute to the national team in particular and Vietnamese football in general.
