The world's most expensive Vietnamese player makes history in the Champions League

(Dan Tri) - Ibrahim Maza made his first appearance in the Champions League when he played for Leverkusen against Copenhagen last night. This player left a positive impression.

Last night, Leverkusen had a dramatic 2-2 draw with Copenhagen in the opening round of the Champions League. Notably, in this match, Vietnamese-origin player Ibrahim Maza played for the first time in the Champions League. He made history by becoming a rare Vietnamese-origin player to appear in Europe's number 1 club competition.

Ibrahim Maza made his Champions League debut for Leverkusen (Photo: Getty).

Ibrahim Maza was brought on by coach Kasper Hjulmand in the 51st minute, when Leverkusen were trailing 0-1. The 2005-born star played energetically, appearing throughout the midfield. In this match, he had 2 shots.

Although he could not score for Leverkusen, Ibrahim Maza's mark was clearly shown. Thanks to that, the German team had two goals thanks to Alex Grimaldo (82nd minute) and an own goal by Pantelis Chatzidiakos (90+1 minute) to get a valuable draw.

Ibrahim Maza has an Algerian father and a Vietnamese mother and grew up in German football. In the end, the midfielder born in 2005 decided to choose to play for the Algerian national team (instead of the Vietnamese or German national teams), even though in the past, he was a member of German youth teams.

Now, Ibrahim Maza is facing a great opportunity to win a ticket to the 2026 World Cup with the Algerian team. Currently, the North African team is leading Group G (only the top team can qualify for the World Cup) in Africa with 19 points, 4 points more than the second-ranked team Uganda in the context of only two rounds of qualifying.

Ibrahim Maza (number 30) plays enthusiastically for Leverkusen (Photo: Getty).

That means Algeria will complete their goal of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup if they win against bottom-placed Somalia in the next match in October.

If he attends the World Cup, Ibrahim Maza will be a rare Vietnamese-origin player to participate in the number one football tournament on the planet.

Ibrahim Maza is the most expensive Vietnamese-origin player in the world at the moment, valued at 12 million euros (372 billion VND) by the transfer website Transfermarkt. Last summer, Ibrahim Maza moved from Hertha Berlin to Leverkusen for 14 million euros.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/cau-thu-goc-viet-dat-gia-nhat-the-gioi-lam-nen-lich-su-o-champions-league-20250919200313784.htm