Opponents rarely use naturalized players, Vietnamese football ranks first in Southeast Asia

Once opponents rarely use naturalized players, Vietnamese football has the best force in Southeast Asia. For 2 consecutive years, Vietnamese football won 2 regional tournaments, for the national team and the U.23 team.

Consecutive titles of Vietnamese football

The Vietnamese team lost to the Indonesian naturalized players in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia. We lost to the Malaysian naturalized players in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. However, when the aforementioned teams and teams in Southeast Asia in general do not use many naturalized players, they cannot prevent the Vietnamese teams from winning regional tournaments.

When football teams in Southeast Asia rarely use naturalized players, they cannot stop U.23 Vietnam.

Photo: Dong Nguyen Khang

Last year, when the Vietnamese team won the AFF Cup 2024, the Indonesian and Malaysian teams did not have many outstanding naturalized players. Meanwhile, Thailand only had right-back Nicholas Mickelson as a notable naturalized player, unable to stop Quang Hai, Tien Linh, Bui Tien Dung, Thanh Chung, Hai Long... from winning the championship.

In this year’s U.23 Southeast Asian tournament, U.23 Indonesia only has one naturalized player, Dutch-born striker Jens Raven, U.23 Malaysia only has one naturalized player, Scottish-born striker Fergus Tierney. Meanwhile, U.23 Thailand does not have any naturalized players. These teams cannot prevent U.23 Vietnam with Trung Kien, Ly Duc, Hieu Minh, Van Truong, Van Khang, Dinh Bac… from becoming the Southeast Asian youth football champion.

This shows that the training of Vietnamese football players at the present time is among the best in Southeast Asia. Neighboring football teams can only defeat the national team and the U.23 team of Vietnam if they use a large number of naturalized players. In the case that neighboring football teams use their own internal source of players, most teams in Southeast Asia are not opponents of the national team and the U.23 team of Vietnam.

Achievements reflect the quality of training

The coach of the U.23 Philippines team, Garrath McPherson, one of the defeated players of U.23 Vietnam in this year's tournament, commented: "U.23 Vietnam is stronger than I imagined. U.23 Vietnam players have very good ball control ability. U.23 Indonesia players also try to do the same as the Vietnamese players, but the Indonesian players' ball control ability is not as good as the Vietnamese players'."

The championship reflects the quality of training

Photo: Dong Nguyen Khang

This comment partly reflects the quality of Vietnamese players compared to players from other football backgrounds in Southeast Asia. It is also an affirmation of the training quality of Vietnamese football in recent years. The efforts of domestic youth training centers, combined with the correct strategic planning steps of football managers at VFF, have created generations of good players, helping Vietnamese teams to dominate the most important tournaments in the region.

Vietnam U23 winning the U23 Southeast Asian Championship three times in a row, and the Vietnamese team winning the AFF Cup 2024 is not a coincidence. It reflects the quality of training and human resource development of football compared to the regional level. Vietnamese football is only inferior to the naturalized players who have appeared en masse in Indonesia and Malaysia in recent years. However, naturalizing players and replacing almost all of the personnel in the Indonesian and Malaysian teams is not necessarily a sustainable direction!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cac-doi-thu-it-su-dung-cau-thu-nhap-tich-bong-da-viet-nam-dung-dau-dong-nam-a-185250730021103453.htm