Troussier Reveals Reasons Why Vietnam Is Not Intensively Carrying Out Naturalization Projects

Jakarta, Beritasatu.com – Vietnam national team coach, Philippe Troussier, revealed the reason his team did not aggressively carry out the naturalization project like other teams, including Indonesia. According to him, the Football Federation (VFF) is encouraging the development of local players.

“FIFA clearly provides support to many countries to develop local football. In general we do development through academies, more resources for clubs, improving the quality of training grounds, stadiums, referees, coaches and it is clear that we do that in Vietnam. We must “continue to maintain this local development,” said Troussier in a press conference at Gelora Bung Karno, Wednesday (20/3/2024).

At the moment, squad Vietnam is only strengthened by one naturalized player, namely goalkeeper Philip Nguyen. On the other hand, a number of Vietnam's rivals in Southeast Asia are carrying out naturalization projects, including the Indonesian National Team, which has recently been aggressively pursuing this project.

However, Troussier admitted that naturalization was one of the strategies for developing the national team. He also mentioned that players who appear abroad could be the key to the national team's development.

Regarding players competing abroad, the French coach admitted that Vietnamese players were not successful enough because they had minimal playing minutes. He also touched on several names of Vietnamese players such as Nguyen Quang Hai, Doan Van Hau, Nguyen Van Toan who had no luck abroad.

“Process abroadespecially in Vietnam, at the moment has not achieved great success because we look at previous experiences,” said Troussier.

Nevertheless, Troussier still hopes that in the future Vietnamese players can have careers abroad. He also gave an example, the Japanese national team could become so strong because the majority of its players played for foreign clubs, especially Europe.

“The quality of the Japanese team comes from abroad and I would like to add an example. Last year, Urawa Red were champions of the Asian Champions League, and the question is how many players play in the national team? Zero. Urawa Reds, they are the Japanese team who are champions of Asia, but there are none “who plays for the national team, this is important to understand, it is also important to have support from foreign (players),” stressed the former Japanese national team coach.