Why do foreign players receive money for "agreeing to naturalize"?

Only after Dinh Hoang La's legal conflict with V.Ninh Binh, people confirmed that the story of foreign players receiving large sums of money to agree to naturalize in V-League is true.

V-League is the league with the second most foreign players in Southeast Asia, only after S-League (Singapore) with 15 people. Thai-League has two foreign players. The similar number in Indonesia is three people while the Malaysian Premier League has no foreign players.

For many years now, the success or failure of the V-League and the First Division has gradually depended on foreign players after clubs competed to become addicted to "shopping" in the "markets" of African and Brazilian players... Clubs that have gone from recruiting foreign players to "follow the trend" of the V-League have increasingly gone deeper into the path of foreign players as the foreign player market as well as the development of the V-League's force have had new developments each season.

Hanoi T&T is completing the naturalization procedures for Samson Kyode (yellow shirt). Photo: Anh Nhon

Discovering the V-League market, there was a time when a large number of African players poured into Vietnam through tourism with the hope of finding work in a new land. Not to mention the bosses contacted abroad to find reliable sources of player introductions, having many "treasures" in the squad with the clubs became very easy.

Following the acquisition of many foreign players, teams began to consider how to use more foreign players in each match. To do this, the most common way is to naturalize the players as Vietnamese.

V-League was born in the 2000-2001 season, but it was not until 2007 that foreign players appeared in this tournament. Fabio dos Santos, a Brazilian goalkeeper who played for Dong Tam Long An since 2001, was the first foreign player to be naturalized as a Vietnamese. After six years playing for Dong Tam, in 2007, Fabio Santos became a Vietnamese citizen with the name Phan Van Santos.

Naturalizing players is considered an effective countermeasure to the policy of limiting foreign players in V-League. Currently, teams are allowed to register four foreign players but only three are allowed on the field at the same time. Phan Van Santos is a Vietnamese national, if including the goalkeeper who is over 1m90 tall, Dong Tam is the first team that can play with four foreign players at the same time.

V-League – after 10 years, looking at the number of goals and influence, experts admit that foreign players play a decisive role. After taking Vietnamese nationality, Santos still maintained his high performance in Dong Tam. The success of the Brazilian goalkeeper in Dong Tam has opened a trend of naturalizing foreign players in V-League. After Phan Van Santos, there have been 13 more foreign players given Vietnamese nationality.

“Love V-League, love Vietnam” is the catchphrase of foreign players when receiving Vietnamese passports. However, almost none of them can speak Vietnamese fluently. Not all foreign players voluntarily take Vietnamese nationality. The money spent to persuade foreign players to give up their old nationality and take Vietnamese nationality is due to this fact. Up to now, except Santos, most of the remaining players have received "naturalization consent" money from the club. The amount is usually not disclosed, but it is not small, from a few tens to even hundreds of thousands of USD depending on talent.

It was not until Dinh Hoang La (Mykola - of Ukrainian origin) and Ninh Binh team sued each other after this goalkeeper moved to Binh Duong that the amount of money Hoang La received when he became a Vietnamese citizen was made public. Accordingly, in order for Lytokva Mykola to become a Vietnamese citizen, Ninh Binh had to pay this goalkeeper 50,000 USD.

In addition to this amount of money, the naturalized player transfer market in Vietnam has other attractive benefits.

In reality, with a Vietnamese passport in hand, naturalized players can earn many times more income. Center back Helio playing for Song Lam Nghe An only received a "bribe" of 30,000 USD plus a salary of 5,000 USD per month. But when holding a Vietnamese passport with the name Nguyen Hoang Helio, this center back went to Binh Duong with a "bribe" of nearly 200,000 USD. The salary that Helio received was double the amount when he played for Song Lam.

After Santos' success with Dong Tam, clubs competed to naturalize foreign players. As of the 2011 season, there were 14 foreign players playing in the V-League, First Division: Huynh Kesley Alves (Xuan Thanh Saigon), Nguyen Hoang Helio (SLNA), Nguyen Rogerio (SHB Da Nang), Nguyen Thanh Son (Quang Nam), Doan Van Sakda (HAGL), Doan Van Nirut (Navibank Saigon), Dinh Hoang Max, Dinh Hoang La (Ninh Binh), Le Hoang Tran Xi (Ninh Binh), Tran Le Martin (Hoa Phat Hanoi), Tran Le Issac (Hoa Phat Hanoi), Hoang Vissai (Ninh Binh), Phan Van Santos (Navibank Saigon), Le Tostao (LS Thanh Hoa).

Currently, Hanoi T&T is also doing the naturalization procedure for "wild horse" Samson Kyode after bringing him from Atletico Madrid to serve with a three-year contract.

According to VnExpress