Nguyễn Filip, one of Việt Nam's heritage players, gave a great performance but was not able to close the enormous gap between Việt Nam and Malaysia's new heritage players. VNA/VNS Photo

Anh Đức

Việt Nam has fallen behind in the race for Asian Cup qualification, trailing its Southeast Asian opponents in the pursuit of talented Vietnamese players from overseas.

And it took only one compelling defeat against Malaysia last Tuesday for all of that to unfold before the eyes of pundits and fans.

The hosts fielded nine foreign players with Malaysian heritage in the match, all coming from top football leagues in Spain, Colombia and Turkey, with the only local players being keeper Syihan Hazmi and winger Arif Aiman.

Việt Nam's fanbase is split on this defeat: some see it as an awakening, evidence that Vietnamese football needs a change in approach, while others feel like they've been cheated, having played against a South American team rather than a Southeast Asian one.

I have to step in to correct some of my fellow pressmen, who incorrectly labelled Malaysian heritage players Joao Figueiredo, Rodrigo Holgado and Facundo Garces as 'imports' and 'naturalised players'. These players, despite not being born in Malaysia, have familial ties to the country going back to their grandparents, which makes them eligible to play for the Malaysian national football team as long as they have Malaysian nationality.

The Malaysian FA went all in to scout and recruit these heritage players from all over the world, and is expanding that network even further to prepare for the next Asian Cup and World Cup campaigns.

In that match, Việt Nam had two heritage players in Cao Pendant Quang Vinh and Nguyễn Filip, but they alone were evidently not impactful enough against a team with such an advantage.

Former national team coach Philippe Troussier, who is a polarising figure in Vietnamese football, once said that the national football team needs more overseas Vietnamese players in addition to just Vinh, or else the World Cup would be an impossible dream even if Pep Guardiola or José Mourinho were to take the helm.

To date, Việt Nam have called up only five heritage players in their entire history: Đặng Văn Lâm, Adriano Schmidt, Michal Nguyễn, Nguyễn Filip and Cao Pendant Quang Vinh. Indonesia and Malaysia, on the other hand, have called up 36 and 25 respectively.

With the FIFA World Cup expanded to 48 teams, and even poised to grow to 64 teams in forthcoming editions, chances for qualification for the world's biggest football stage are opening up.

For nations without the virtue of a properly developed football system, but which still want to seek success, the quickest way is to find heritage players that have already developed football talent and mentality, and persuade them to play for the national team. The trade-off here is a somewhat conservative perception of cultural and ethnic values.

The world is becoming more and more globalised, with borders and skin colours becoming blurred, less and less important compared to the will and desire to contribute to a player's beloved nation.

Those who say that Vietnamese players must be Vietnamese should remember that statistically, without Nguyễn Xuân Son's goals, Việt Nam might have drawn 1-1 on aggregate against Singapore in the semifinals of the ASEAN Championship. The team might not have even made it to the final, let alone winning the whole thing.

With the Law on Nationality being revised to open up more opportunities for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese to contribute to Việt Nam's development, drawing talents from a pool of heritage players worldwide should be a priority, with Việt Nam needing five goals against Malaysia in the return fixture to qualify. VNS