KUALA LUMPUR – If the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) decides to continue its naturalisation and heritage player programmes, it should shift its focus to recruiting younger players rather than those who have passed their prime, according to Datuk Dollah Salleh.
The national football legend’s response came after Pau Marti Vicente’s Harimau Malaya side suffered a 4-0 defeat to world number 95-ranked New Zealand in a friendly at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland yesterday.
Malaysia held the All Whites scoreless in the first half, but the floodgates opened after the break, with New Zealand netting through Elijah Just (53rd minute), Matthew Garbett (61st), Chris Wood (72nd), and Logan Rogerson (90th).
The match also saw Vicente experiment with a high number of naturalised and heritage players in his line-up. This included Matthew Davies, Darren Lok, Endrick Dos Santos, Nooa Laine, Corbin Ong, Romel Morales, Stuart Wilkin, and Paulo Josue – the oldest player in the team at 35 years old.
Speaking to Scoop, Dollah, who made a total of 81 appearances for Harimau Malaya between 1984 and 1996, said that FAM should look at the model used by the Football Association of Indonesia (FAI) in bringing in quality naturalised and heritage players to strengthen the national team.
Dollah also suggested that FAM should collaborate with the Malaysian Football League to introduce a regulation requiring Super League clubs to sign at least six players under the age of 20 as part of the 12 foreign player quotas that have been approved.
Indonesia, currently ranked 129th in the world, has 17 naturalised and heritage players in its 23-man squad. The youngest player in the team is Ivar Jenner, who is 20 years old and was born in the Netherlands.
“We tend to always compare ourselves with Indonesia, but we are not doing what they are doing. In Indonesia, local league clubs, through their coaches, sign players under 20, and when they are naturalised, they tend to be in their prime.
“However, in our country, we do the opposite as FAM usually brings in players to the national team who have passed their prime, and our Super League clubs typically sign foreign players over 30.
“We can’t blame FAM entirely, as they don’t have many player options to choose from at the club level for the national team. I was the first to advocate for this when I was the national team head coach back in 2014, as naturalisation is the way forward.
“But it’s sad to see that the clubs are not cooperating with FAM as is being done in Indonesia. Unless the clubs cooperate with FAM, it will be very difficult for our national team to bring in quality naturalised and heritage players,” Dollah said when contacted.
Dollah also commented on the speculation surrounding Johor Darul Ta’zim’s (JDT) Bergson da Silva potentially joining the Harimau Malaya camp, stating that his inclusion would not benefit the national team in the long term.
Reports suggest that Brazil-born Bergson, who has been playing for JDT for the past three years, might be naturalised for the national team in the next two years.
“I believe that even if JDT naturalises Bergson and FAM brings him on board, it would be of little value, as it wouldn’t offer any long-term benefits.
“He is indeed a good player and will certainly get us the goals we want, but for how long? Maybe one or two years? What will FAM do after that?
“It would be a better option to give players like Fergus Tierney more exposure in the senior national team and mould him into a better striker than Bergson. At least Harimau Malaya would have a reliable finisher for the long term,” Dollah added.
Gambia-born Mohamadou Sumareh became Malaysia’s first-ever naturalised player, contributing to Harimau Malaya’s second-place finish in the 2018 AFF Cup. – October 15, 2024