V-League needs to invite talented overseas Vietnamese: If you want to beat Malaysia, use this method!

Hopefully in V-League 2025 - 2026, clubs will select more talented overseas Vietnamese to create a foundation for the Vietnamese national team in the future.

Vietnam team looks forward to overseas Vietnamese

The 0-4 defeat to Malaysia makes it difficult for the Vietnamese team to qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup. Missing a ticket to the Asian tournament is only part of the story. The question is: should Vietnamese football follow the path of Malaysia, Indonesia and many other footballing nations, which is to use many players with foreign blood (50% like overseas Vietnamese, or 100% like naturalized foreign players), or continue to put faith in domestic players?

President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Tran Quoc Tuan affirmed that the Vietnamese team will not mass naturalize players like Malaysia and Indonesia, but will focus on building a young generation and improving the national championship to ensure player quality. However, in parallel with building the foundation, the Vietnamese team still needs to open its doors to many sources of players in a moderate and selective manner.

Nguyen Filip (blue shirt) and Cao Pendant Quang Vinh are rare high-class overseas Vietnamese.

PHOTO: VUONG ANH

First, we need to look at the policies of Malaysia and Indonesia. Both teams mainly use players of their own origin. They are "Malaysian" or "Indo-Vietnamese", whose grandparents, fathers or mothers were born and have nationality in the host country.

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has allowed countries to naturalize players up to the F2 generation (meaning that as long as he or she has Malaysian or Indonesian nationality, the player is eligible to play for the two teams). Both Malaysia and Indonesia have very good player search and recruitment systems to connect with talents playing in Europe.

Unlike its opponents, the Vietnamese team does not have such a rich source of overseas Vietnamese. In the past, there were many overseas Vietnamese returning to the country such as Michal Nguyen and Adriano Schmidt, but most of them did not have a place.

Simply because: the level of overseas Vietnamese players is not better than Vietnamese players, and they cannot adapt to the weather, culture, and cuisine of Vietnam, leading to a lack of competitiveness.

In the last 2 or 3 years, the quality of overseas Vietnamese has improved. Hanoi Police Club (CAHN Club) is a pioneer with 2 stars Nguyen Filip and Cao Pendant Quang Vinh. Both have at least 6 years of playing in Europe, are well-trained, and are standard mixed-race models with European-class physique and fitness.

Viktor Le (red shirt) has potential but needs time

PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

Ha Tinh Club has Adou Minh and Le Viktor, Nam Dinh owns Kevin Pham Ba... They are all potential seeds to upgrade the Vietnamese team.

Need more talented overseas Vietnamese

The reason why more and more talented overseas Vietnamese are returning to Vietnam to contribute is because teams are more and more actively "hunting for people". Some teams have close relationships with brokers, maintain relationships with overseas Vietnamese, and continuously welcome overseas Vietnamese to return to the country for trials to screen and select.

Nowadays, when the mindset of welcoming overseas Vietnamese players is becoming more popular, combined with technology making connection easier, V-League has more quality half-Vietnamese players than before.

However, very few players reach the level of Filip and Quang Vinh. Before returning to Vietnam, Adou Minh and Kevin Pham Ba only played in the French semi-professional league. Le Viktor has Russian blood, but only trained at a basic level abroad, so his football skills, physique and physical strength are still limited. Kyle Colonna, Pierre Lamothe, Audrey Nguyen Hung Anh, Ryan Ha, Martin Lo... are inferior to domestic players.

Kevin Pham Ba (in white shirt) is 31 years old, only played in the lower league in France before returning to Vietnam.

PHOTO: NAM DINH CLUB

Compared to the multi-million dollar foreign-origin force that Indonesia and Malaysia possess, it is clear that overseas Vietnamese players are still far behind. The current overseas Vietnamese resource in V-League is only better than before, but cannot be compared to the top teams in Southeast Asia.

That requires teams to be more "willing to spend" in searching for and inviting talented overseas Vietnamese to return to play in the country. CAHN Club may recruit Brandon Ly, a player who was trained at Burnley youth team (a team currently playing in England). Hopefully, more overseas Vietnamese will return to V-League to show their talent.

Coach Kim Sang-sik needs more "flour" to create a winning team. To beat Malaysia, perhaps this is the only way!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/v-league-can-moi-goi-viet-kieu-gioi-muon-thang-malaysia-hay-su-dung-cach-nay-185250715233421454.htm