Official documents prove that Machuca is originally entirely from Argentina, and has no blood connection with Malaysia as FAM previously claimed.
Argentine newspapers published the birth certificate of Ms. Concepcion Agueda Alaniz - who is believed to be the grandmother of Machuca, the documents showing that she was born in the town of roldan, Santa Fe province (Argentina). This document was confirmed by the local civil status registration agency, refuting the information that she was born in Penang (Malaysia). Ms. Agueda's marriage certificate with Mr. Jorge Luis Saracho, also an Argentine citizen, is clearly stated in the notarized certificate.
The newspapers confirmed that the evidence shows that FAM's claim of Malaysian origin for Machuca is unfounded. The player was accused of cheating to gain naturalization, similar to the case of facundo Garces before.
Imanol Machuca played 17 minutes in Malaysia's 4-0 win over Vietnam in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. However, after being discovered to have committed violations, he was banned by FIFA from all football activities for 12 months and fined 2,000 Swiss francs (about 66 million VND).
