Australian Vietnamese return to Vietnam, Coach Kim Sang Sik gains a new player to face Malaysia

The arrival of Australian Vietnamese player Khoa Ngô at a V-League club will create an opportunity for a high-level goalkeeper holding Vietnamese nationality.

According to information from The Football Newspaper, the CA.HCMC club is very close to signing the Australian Vietnamese newcomer Khoa Ngô, a player born in 2006 whose both parents are Vietnamese but who currently does not hold Vietnamese citizenship.

Sources indicate that Khoa Ngô will come to Vietnam in the coming days and is expected to officially sign with the police-affiliated club. Ahead of the transfer, this young player recently made a notable impression by scoring his first goal in the A-League for Perth Glory. The 19-year-old rising star came off the bench and scored to reduce the score to 2-3 in an away match against Melbourne Victory.

If this deal is completed, Khoa Ngô will become the third Australian Vietnamese player without citizenship in the CA.HCMC squad, following Lee Williams and Patrik Lê Giang. According to V-League regulations, each team can only have 3 foreign players and 2 Vietnamese overseas players. Therefore, Khoa Ngô joining Thong Nhat Stadium’s club will create the condition for Patrik Lê Giang to obtain Vietnamese nationality.

Patrik Lê Giang returned to Vietnam in January 2023. Unlike many other foreign players, this goalkeeper has Vietnamese blood through his father, while his mother is Slovakian, and he currently holds a Slovak passport. Thanks to his overseas Vietnamese background, Patrik Lê Giang does not need to meet the usual requirement of continuous 5-year residency in Vietnam.

If the paperwork is approved soon, Patrik Lê Giang will gain Vietnamese citizenship and become eligible to join the national team in major campaigns. This is great news for Coach Kim Sang Sik, who has been struggling to find a reliable goalkeeper. In fact, the Korean strategist himself has proposed fast-tracking Patrik’s naturalization to obtain a Vietnamese passport soon to be ready to compete in the national team jersey.

If the naturalization process goes smoothly, the Vietnamese national team will have three experienced and high-quality overseas Vietnamese goalkeepers simultaneously, including Patrik Lê Giang, Đặng Văn Lâm, and Filip Nguyễn. This will surely be a "pleasant headache" for Coach Kim Sang Sik, especially as the Vietnamese national team prepares to face Malaysia in the final round of Group F in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers this coming March.