Power Up
Looking at the 2023 World Cup (women's football) and most recently the 2026 World Cup qualifiers (men's football), it can be seen that Vietnamese teams are facing many obstacles in their aspirations to reach the continental or world level. Their modest stature, lack of technical and tactical skills, and unstable competitive spirit are the reasons why the Vietnamese team has not been able to realize many ambitions over the past many years. In fact, other teams in Southeast Asia are also in a similar situation.
Therefore, in the context of modest internal strength, many teams in Southeast Asia have decided to naturalize players in two directions, including faces with origins such as Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, African... or foreign players who are good enough and meet professional requirements. The story of Malaysia or to some extent Singapore, Philippines for a long time is a typical example.
For Vietnamese football, improving the strength of overseas Vietnamese players or finding foreign players with the ability to become naturalized is something that needs to be considered, especially when the strength of domestic players has significantly decreased in the past year. The failure of Cong Phuong at Yokohama FC, which has left Vietnamese football without any players playing abroad, is proof of the limitations and low performance of the current domestic force.
Need long term strategy
The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has opened the door to attract talented overseas Vietnamese players. In the past two seasons, the VFF has allowed clubs to register 1-2 overseas Vietnamese players, attracting many Vietnamese-origin talents from many places around the world. In particular, the case of Nguyen Filip successfully naturalizing and joining the Vietnam national team could pave the way for other overseas Vietnamese players to do the same in the near future.
However, at present, the resources of talented overseas Vietnamese in Vietnam are still limited. Except for Nguyen Filip or to some extent Patrik Le Giang, Jason Quang Vinh Pendant, most overseas Vietnamese players playing in V.League are at an average level. Meanwhile, outstanding overseas Vietnamese players playing abroad are not interested in playing in V.League or aiming to play for the Vietnam National Team.
In the context of limited domestic and overseas Vietnamese resources, placing hope on foreign players who are capable of naturalization and have the desire to contribute to the Vietnamese national team is something worth paying attention to. Most recently, the case of Rafaelson (new name Nguyen Xuan Son) is receiving much attention. The striker born in 1997 - with a record of scoring 31 goals in a season and winning the V.League Top Scorer title twice in a row - can successfully naturalize in the near future.
But to meet the conditions to wear the Vietnam National Team jersey, he needs to receive approval from VFF as well as meet the professional requirements from coach Kim Sang-sik.
In the past, that is, before Rafaelson, some naturalized players such as Dinh Hoang La, Dinh Hoang Max, Phan Van Santos, Huynh Kesley Alves also played for the Vietnam National Team. However, the number of times they played did not exceed 5 matches.
That partly comes from the behavior of these naturalized players on the field as well as their lives off the field. They themselves do not maintain their determination to contribute to the Vietnam national team. Gossip from public opinion appears, leading to the "policy to create conditions for naturalized players to compete" also not being implemented clearly and completely.
After the lesson from more than 10 years ago, the selection of naturalized players for the Vietnam National Team requires consistency. That is the determination, aspiration, and perseverance of the naturalized foreign players. And most importantly, the strategy from the authorities in creating conditions for naturalized players must be implemented decisively and strongly.
