The powerful man behind the naturalization plan, helping Malaysia beat Vietnam

Before the Malaysian players entered the field to face the Vietnamese team in the Asian Cup qualifiers, a special figure appeared in the team's locker room. He stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by the Malaysian players and coaching staff.

Người quyền lực sau kế hoạch nhập tịch, giúp Malaysia thắng tuyển Việt Nam - 1 — Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim (center) cheers on Malaysian players before the match against the Vietnamese team (Photo: FAM).

Then the man gave his team a pep talk, shouting the victory slogan: “It’s time for everyone to show who we are. If we change football in our homeland, you will be heroes. Let’s show our bravery and fighting spirit. This is our home.”

That mysterious but powerful man is Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim. He is the Crown Prince and Regent of Johor. He is not only the President of Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club, the team that has dominated Malaysia for many years, but also a figure with great influence on Malaysian sports .

That is the person that the legendary Malaysian athlete, the great badminton player Lee Chong Wei, deeply respected.

In the past, Crown Prince Tunku Ismail was the President of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). However, he has not held this role since 2018. This powerful man even withdrew from FAM's work since then. That was also the period when Malaysian football fell into a disastrous decline and lost direction.

In fact, since Tunku Ismail was in charge of FAM, Malaysian football has used quite a few naturalized players, typically Mohamadou Sumareh or De Paula. However, at that time, the naturalization was not really systematic.

Người quyền lực sau kế hoạch nhập tịch, giúp Malaysia thắng tuyển Việt Nam - 2 — Crown Prince Tunku Ismail has built a network of scouts for players of Malaysian origin in South America and Asia (Photo: FAM).

By 2024, Crown Prince Tunku Ismail is back with an ambitious project called the “Malaysian Tiger Revolution”. In it, he is building a network to search for players of Malaysian origin in South America (Brazil, Colombia, Argentina) and Europe.

“This is a real revolution for Malaysian football. We are determined to take the Malaysian team to new heights. Any constructive move will be in vain if it does not yield results and high achievements,” Tunku Ismail declared.

Center-back Facundo Garces, who plays for La Liga club Alaves, is an important part of the "makeover" plan of Malaysian football. It is rare for a Southeast Asian player to play in such a high-level tournament. In addition, in the match against Vietnam, Malaysia also introduced a series of high-quality stars in attack such as Rodrigo Holgado, Jon Irazabal and Joao Figueiredo.

In response to the suspicions regarding FAM’s “rushed purchase of players” for the match against the Vietnamese team, the President of the Kuala Lumpur Football Federation, Syed Yazid Syed Omar, spoke out in response. In it, he mentioned the role of Crown Prince Tunku Ismail: “We should not pay attention to the accusations from outside. Maybe they are jealous of the revolution taking place in Malaysian football.

I have confidence in the FAM leadership. They did a thorough research before naturalizing these players. Everyone knows that Crown Prince Tunku Ismail (who set up a network to search for players of Malaysian origin abroad) has close ties with many footballing backgrounds in the world . He has done a very good job.”

According to coach Peter Cklamovski, he has more than 30 players of South American origin (mostly from Argentina) with Malaysian blood. That means that in the future, Malaysia can naturalize a large number of players, not just the current squad.

Người quyền lực sau kế hoạch nhập tịch, giúp Malaysia thắng tuyển Việt Nam - 3 — Naturalized players have helped Malaysian football "transform" and win big against the Vietnamese team (Photo: Getty).

Malaysia is following Indonesia's path. They accept the trade-off of not using many local players to rely on high-quality naturalized players from Europe and South America to reach Asia, not just stop at Southeast Asia.

Crown Prince Tunku Ismail stated his views: “There are people who do not believe in my plan. We are really creating a revolution, bringing many new things to Malaysian football. The team's performance will speak for itself. This is the time for us to prove ourselves. If Malaysian football changes, your contribution will be great.”

As the President of Johor Darul Ta'zim, Tunku Ismail has transformed the club into a "United Nations" team by attracting world-class stars such as Samu Castillejo and Jese Rodriguez. The club has dominated Malaysia for the past decade and is capable of competing with the top teams in Asia.

Now, this powerful man wants to turn Malaysia into a similar version, aiming to compete with the top teams in Asia and participate in the 2030 World Cup. The ambition of Malaysian football is huge.