It is common knowledge that in the world of football, players will rotate from time to time due to injury, retirement, poor performance or just for tactical reasons. Our national team Harimau Malaya is no different and is always on the lookout to recruit new members to play for Malaysia in international tournaments.
Football fans have plenty of recommendations but two of these recommended players caught the attention of many due to them not actually being Malaysian. Matter of fact, one of them is an English Premiere League (EPL) player. So who are they and would it be possible for them to play for Harimau Malaya one day? Let’s find out:
Ferdy Druijf
A few months ago, a football fan recommended to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) that Dutch player Ferdy Druijf be recruited as part of the Harimau Malaya team due to his Malaysian heritage. It was said that he’d make the perfect striker (or centre-forward) for the team one day.
It appears that the athlete himself is interested in the possibility of playing for the Malaysian team as he’s currently preparing documents to prove that he does have Malaysian blood, according to FR Future Talents. “My desire to play for Malaysia is there. For now, I’m preparing documents to prove that my grandmother is from Malaysia,” he said.
Joshua Brownhill
Another identified player is UK-born footballer Joshua Brownhill, who is the midfielder for Premier League club Burnley. According to FR Future Talents, just like Ferdy, the midfielder’s grandmother is also from Malaysia, though it was not specified which state she was actually from. It is also believed that Joshua is quite acquainted with Stuart Wilkin, who is the current midfielder for Harimau Malaya.
For now, the Secretary General of FAM Datuk Noor Azman Rahman told reporters that they’re carefully monitoring the development of recruiting these foreign footballers to ensure that they are good enough to play for our national team. “Coaches Kim Pan-gon and Juan Torres Garrido will assess whether [the players] are suitable to be called up. They are currently assessing 3-4 players at the moment,” he said.
Would you like to see a team of mixed-heritage players? Well that all depends on FAM’s decision…
