Malaysian expert: Our team is nearly 3 times more expensive than Vietnam, but that doesn't say anything

TPO - The Malaysian national team has just finalized the list of 30 players to prepare for the match with the Vietnamese national team in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. Looking at the total value of these 30 players, fans can see the breakthrough of the Malaysian national team after they naturalized massively. However, according to Malaysian experts, this factor does not say much...

Names like Facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Rodrigo Holgado, Jon Irazabal… have helped the Tigers increase their value nearly 3 times compared to before. Specifically, from the 5.8 million euro mark, the total value of the Malaysian national team has now reached 14.63 million euros (according to the transfer website Transfermarkt). Most of the contribution comes from the "mercenary" force with Imanol Machuca valued at 2.5 million euros, Facundo Garces at 1.2 million euros or Rodrigo Holgado valued at 0.8 million euros…

This means that the value of the Malaysian team has also skyrocketed compared to the Vietnamese team. From being on par, the Tigers are now worth nearly three times more than the Golden Star Warriors when the squad in the hands of coach Kim Sang Sik is only 5.83 million euros. If put on the scale, it is clear that the Malaysian team is superior to the Vietnamese team, but when playing on the field, the story will be very different. That view was shared by expert Effendi Jagan Abdullah with Astro Arena.

"High value does not mean that the team is good. It reflects the strength of the team but not everything. Many high-class players have been brought to the Malaysian national team, especially from Latin America, but their value is not really too high, only high when compared to the Asian or ASEAN region," he said.

Naturalized players are appearing more frequently in the Malaysian team.

“If we look at players like Machuca, his value is quite high, at 12 million ringgit (2.5 million euros). But has he played at international level for Argentina’s youth teams? His value seems high in this region but in Latin America it is very normal.

On paper, in terms of market value, it looks like we have a really good squad and we can win. However, that doesn't mean anything. It's not decided by that factor."

As this expert shared, the results of matches are not decided by market prices. The most recent example in the 2026 World Cup 3 qualifying round: Japan is many times more expensive than Australia but still lost 0-1, Qatar has a total value of only 70% of Iran but still defeated the opponent... Fans believe that in the match on June 10, a similar scenario will also take place to bring joy to the guests Vietnam.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chuyen-gia-malaysia-doi-tuyen-chung-ta-dat-gap-gan-3-lan-viet-nam-nhung-chua-noi-len-dieu-gi-post1749310.tpo