5 most famous Asian football superstars: Vietnam has 1!

Yohan Cabaye – Vietnam

32-year-old Yohan Cabaye currently plays for United Arab Emirates club Al-Nasr, but the majority of his previous career was spent at two clubs, one in Ligue 1 and one in the Premier League.

Cabaye, who has made 48 appearances for France, has a Vietnamese grandmother. In fact, he once admitted that he would have played for Vietnam if he had not been selected for the French squad. But that would never have happened as he was a talented midfielder from the start of his career.

The French midfielder has stated that he wants to visit his grandmother's country and contribute to the development of football there.

Alphonse Areola – Philippines

Areola made his professional debut for PSG at the end of the 2012/13 season before spending the next three seasons on loan at Lens, Bastia and Villarreal. In the 2016/17 season, he shared the goalkeeper duties with Kevin Trapp before becoming the Parisian club's first-choice goalkeeper in 2017/18.

The 25-year-old is now on his way to becoming France's first-choice striker after Hugo Lloris retires, but his international career could be very different.

Areola is eligible to play for the Philippines national team because both his parents are of Filipino descent. In fact, in 2011, Philippines coach Dan Palami invited him to play for the national team but he declined.

Interestingly, the Philippines' number one goalkeeper is Cardiff City's Neil Etheridge, a player born in England but with a Filipino mother.

Radja Nainggolan – Indonesia

Radja Nainggolan is a former Belgium international who spent his entire career in Italy, gaining attention for Cagliari and AS Roma before moving to Inter Milan this summer.

The 30-year-old midfielder, nicknamed “Ninja,” was born to a Belgian mother and a Batak Indonesian father. His father abandoned the family when he was a child and his mother raised him with three half-brothers and two twin sisters.

His surname is Radja, which means 'King' in Bahasa Indonesia. Nainggolan has a huge fan base in Indonesia and often uses social media to communicate with fans and show his support for Indonesian teams. He has visited the country several times and has also expressed his desire to develop football there.

David Alaba – Philippines

David Alaba’s parents are from African and Asian countries, and he plays for a European country. What is his mixed heritage? He was born in 1992 in Vienna, Austria to a Nigerian father and a Filipino mother.

Alaba's mother, Gina, was crowned Miss Philippines in the 1980s before emigrating and becoming a nurse in Austria. There, she met and married his father, a prince who worked as a rapper and DJ.

The 26-year-old plays primarily as a left-back but is also capable of playing in midfield and in central defence. He has spent almost his entire professional career at Bayern Munich, winning 15 trophies.

Alaba could go down in history as Austria's greatest player, having won the Austrian Player of the Year award a record six times between 2011 and 2016.

David Silva – Japan

David Silva is in his ninth season with Man City and when he leaves the Manchester club he will go down as one of the greatest players to have ever played for the club. The striker has played a key role in winning nine trophies with the club, including three Premier League titles.

The 32-year-old midfielder was born in Spain to a Spanish father and a mother of Japanese descent, according to Canaria. However, unlike the other players mentioned in this list, it is unclear whether Silva is eligible to play for the Asian country of his birth, as FIFA rules only allow players to represent the country where their biological parents or grandparents were born.

Silva is a World Cup winner and two-time European champion with Spain. He is sixth on the list of players with the most caps for his country and fourth on their list of goalscorers.