SEA Games a showcase for region’s home-grown football talent

BANGKOK – Therdsak Chaiman, Kiatisuk Senamuang, Zainal Abidin Hassan, Noh Alam Shah and Bambang Pamungkas. Over a decade ago, they were the stars who led the way for their nations in South-east Asian football.

Today the list of notable names in the region’s national teams include: Rafaelson (Vietnam), Song Ui-young (Singapore), Kevin Diks (Indonesia), and Paulo Josue (Malaysia).

Driven primarily by an aggressive push for naturalised and heritage players, the landscape of football in South-east Asia has changed, with senior squads dominated by foreign-born players.

This trend has, in turn, elevated the importance of the SEA Games men’s football tournament for locally born players. As the Dec 3–18 football competition in Bangkok and Chiangmai is an Under-22 event and falls outside the Fifa window, all nine participating nations will rely heavily on home-grown players.

The tournament kicks off on Dec 3 with hosts Thailand taking on Timor-Leste and Vietnam facing Laos at the Rajamangala Stadium.

With the nine teams split into three groups, the three group winners and the best second-placed team across all pools will advance to the semi-finals.

Group A comprises record 16-time champions Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Singapore

. Group B consists of Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, while Group C has Myanmar, the Philippines and defending champions Indonesia, who beat the Thais 5-2 in a dramatic final in 2023 to win their first football gold since 1991.

Indonesia’s senior team have also risen in recent times to become arguably the best in the region. They were the only country from South-east Asia to qualify for the fourth round of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

That progress is largely due to the Football Association of Indonesia capitalising on its longstanding ties with the Netherlands.

A host of Dutch-born players with Indonesian heritage – often through a single grandparent – has been fast-tracked for naturalisation. Under Fifa rules, a player may represent another country if they have lived there continuously for five years, or if at least one parent or grandparent was born there.

Of the 11 players who started for the Indonesia national team in their 1-0 World Cup qualifier loss to Iraq in October, nine were born in Europe (eight in the Netherlands and one in Finland).

Indonesian football journalist Tio Prasetyo Utomo told The Straits Times that there is a mix of concern and excitement among his countrymen.

“Many local players feel the pressure because competition for spots in the senior national team is more challenging than ever,” he said.

“But instead of discouragement, it has created a sense of urgency and motivation. SEA Games is seen as a real chance for them to prove that Indonesian-born players still have the quality to dominate the region.”

“It is one of the few major international tournaments where local players can shine, offering hope and motivation for Indonesia’s future talent. It lets local players prove that they too can compete for selection at the senior level.”

Indonesia’s 23-man U-22 squad for the Games only has three heritage players who currently play in the Netherlands: Ivar Jenner (FC Utrecht), Dion Markx (TOP Oss), and Mauro Zijlstra (FC Volendam).

The Games have also come at an opportune time for Malaysian football, with the country still reeling from the recent football forgery scandal involving the national senior team. Fifa had ruled in September that the

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven of its players used forged or falsified birth certificates

of the players’ grandparents to secure their eligibility to play for the national team.

Two months later, the world football governing body

dismissed FAM’s appeal and confirmed its sanctions

earlier imposed on the association and the seven players: A fine of 350,000 Swiss francs (S$ 562,700) for the FAM and, for the players, a fine of 2,000 Swiss francs each and a one-year worldwide ban from all football-related activities.

The seven players are Argentina-born Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado and Imanol Machuca; Spain-born Gabriel Arrocha and Jon Irazabal; Dutch-born Hector Hevel and Brazil-born Joao Figueiredo.

Malaysian football observer T. Avinesh said that while senior national teams across the region now rely heavily on naturalised or heritage players, U-22 squads are still largely composed of home-grown footballers and hence the Games are a rare and valuable stage to showcase grassroots development.

Football remains the ‘mother of gold medals’ at the Games, as Malaysia last won gold in 2011 and secured silver in 2017, he added.

“Expectations may be modest this time, but a gold medal run would symbolise a new beginning, especially after the recent naturalisation controversy that shook the football landscape,” said Avinesh, who picked defender Ubaidullah Shamsul Fazili as one to watch for the Young Tigers.

“In many ways, hope itself becomes a powerful message. And perhaps these young Harimau Muda players can restore a sense of pride to a nation still reeling from the missteps of those at the top.”

Whatever the blend of local and foreign-born players, what is certain is that the race to gold will be fiercely contested.

Thai football enthusiast Thesis Laohajaratsang, who is commonly known on social media as Ta Lao, said that the host nation are heavy favourites to claim their 17th title, and first since 2017.

He said: “Having fallen agonisingly short in the last two finals (2022 and 2023), I’m sure the consensus within the Sports Authority of Thailand and the Football Association of Thailand is that the 2025 edition must be used to reclaim the title as the kings of Asean football.

Former Thailand and Laos coach Steve Darby noted that three teams – Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam – will be in the mix for the gold. He also tipped Laos to be the surprise entity in 2025.

In 2023, Myanmar emerged as the surprise semi-finalists. Singapore –

winless at the last edition

– will have their work cut out for them while Timor Leste will hope to secure a shock result like they did with a 3-0 win over the Philippines in the last edition.

However, the Philippines’ record at the youth level in the past year suggests that they are a stronger side from their winless campaign in 2023. They made the semi-finals of the U23 Asean Championship in July, and strung together victories against Tajikistan and Nepal during the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers in September.

Darby said: “Vietnam and Thailand should always be seen as favourites. Logically also Indonesia. Watch out for Laos too, there are great things happening in Laos and they certainly have closed the gap on the big nations.”