“Feels Like Cheating”

Malaysia celebrated a dominant 4-0 victory over Vietnam in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. However, many local fans voiced concerns over the national team's increasing reliance on naturalized players. The most upvoted comment responded to the post: "Oh right. The three key players who scored for Malaysia were Johan Figueiredo, Ramasami Holgado, and Lim Corbin-Ong."

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) reportedly plans to naturalize even more players, potentially fielding a squad without any locally raised players, similar to Indonesia's recent policy. This trend has boosted the squad value of Malaysia and Indonesia, putting them ahead of regional rivals like Vietnam and Thailand, who have naturalized some players with foreign blood but still rely primarily on domestic talent.

 

With a squad strengthened by high-quality players of South American and European origins, hosts Malaysia completely dominated Vietnam at the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Malaysian defender Matthew Davies and head coach Peter Cklamovski remain focused on their upcoming match, dismissing rumours about the alleged illegal naturalization of several new players.

We don’t realise or refuse to accept that on merit, foreign players naturalised are better than local talent. Why are the likes of Akmal not questioning this policy of sidelining local bumiputra talent? Surely, we must limit foreign talent (naturalised) not to exceed say, 4 in a team of 11? What if all 11 are “foreigners”? Could we have Ronaldo playing for us?

If the above is feasible in football, could we apply the same for companies or specific sectors in the economy? What is so different? If we have the best talent to represent Malaysia and work for Malaysia, our GDP will not be RM2.0 trillion but RM4.0 trillion in 10 years. Then the pie is large enough to distribute to the disadvantaged group, and no one will have cause to create tension. Isn’t that brilliant? It’s not cheating but being real in a competitive world. Just do it!

 

Reference:

'Feels like cheating': Malaysian fans express concern over naturalized players despite big win over Vietnam, Hoang An, VnExpress,12 June 2025