Xuan Son made a strong impression in the 5-0 victory over Myanmar last weekend, with specific contributions of 2 goals, 2 assists, and countless emotional moments. With Xuan Son alone making such a change in the team, many people expressed regret that if this strategy had been followed earlier, the World Cup dream could have come closer to Vietnamese football instead of being vague as it is now.
However, according to the “law of quantity and quality”, any object/phenomenon in the process of development is a process of quantitative change leading to qualitative change. Quantitative change is the foundation and necessary preparation for qualitative change.
For Vietnamese football, there needs to be enough quantity - big enough "reasons" - to bring about a turning point, to create a qualitative change. Xuan Son is not the first naturalized player; before that, there were Phan Van Santos or Huynh Kesley playing for the Vietnam national team. However, due to some issues - along with some other cases of naturalization that were a bit troublesome, the use of naturalized players has become sensitive.
Over time, there have been accumulated and gradually filled reasons, so that now, the matter of welcoming naturalized players is taken seriously. First, many people see that, following the way Vietnamese football has been going for many years, domestic players do not have enough physique, physical strength, level, courage, and experience when stepping into a higher level of play.
Second, other countries in the Southeast Asian region have been promoting naturalization strategies in different ways. They have had certain successes, including progress and maturity. If they do not want to fall behind, Vietnamese football needs to change.
There is also the thought that using naturalized foreign players will destroy national pride, however, besides the fact that world football has followed this trend for a long time, using them - with love and a strong desire to contribute to the "second homeland" - is better than domestic factors being selected for the national team with the mentality of only affirming star status or some privilege...
Of course, following the trend does not mean not focusing on developing domestic players, but on the contrary, it is necessary for domestic players to change to adapt to Son and his (future) quality teammates...
