Discipline, a key factor for naturalising football players - Sathianathan

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 (Bernama) -- National naturalised players will face a bleak future if they have problems of indiscipline, says former national squad coach, B. Sathianathan. 

Sathianathan who has experience coaching foreign players at club level, admitted the attitude of being swollen headed and disciplinary problem appeared in a few of the players after tasting initial success.

Nonetheless, he stressed that if the naturalised players choose to behave like that it would only kill their future and career.

“Actually, foreign players who have disciplinary problem should not be allowed to play for the national squad (as a naturalised player) . But if we naturalise a 17-year-old player and when he reached 22 and started making trouble...there will be no place for him anymore.

"When there is no place in the national squad or clubs, he may resort to selling watches or clothes by the roadside...so if they really want don the national jersey, they should be disciplined,” he told Bernama today.

Sathianathan who is also the head coach of Selangor and president of the Football Coaches Association Malaysia (PJBM), is also a member of the Naturalisation Programme Committee under the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

At the same time, the 61-year-old coach said the programme committee would ensure the players who were offered the opportunity, have to pass the stringent filtering processing including the factor of discipline.

“We are serious on the question of player recruitment. We have to evaluate the various aspects of the candidate in detailed. We want to make sure the citizenship is granted to players who are sincere and have the same spirit like local players,” he said.

For the record, Pahang striker Mohamadou Sumareh created history by becoming the first naturalised national player who aided the country to emerge as runners-up in the 2018 AFF Cup.

-- BERNAMA