Philippines and Pakistan again? Bulk naturalization may change the Asian women s football landscape

Written by Hanbing The Asian Cup of Women's Football Team will be held in Australia next year. Among the 12 participating teams, the most foreign players are not Japan, nor is Australia, which has the same tradition of playing football in Europe as the men's football team, but the Philippines, which has been mass-naturalized in recent years.

Starting the "Jordan Plan" in 2017, the Philippines has rapidly improved its strength due to a large number of players who have been naturalized from the United States. In the Asian Cup of Women's Football Team 4 years ago, they made a big splash, defeated Taipei, China in the quarter-final penalty shootout, entered the semi-finals for the first time in the team's history and won the Women's World Cup qualifiers. Four years later, can the Philippines, which focuses on naturalized players, continue to change the traditional pattern of Asian women's football team?

Since 2012, the Philippines has begun to naturalize female football players with Filipino descent from the United States, but the real transformation was in 2017. That year, they launched the "Jordan Project", and Filipino Chinese-American businessman Jefferson Zheng became the sponsor and team manager of the Philippines Women's Football Team. The Philippine Football Association has set up a training camp for naturalized players in the United States. The training camp lasts for three months and moved to Japan in March 2018. The Philippines won the best record in the Asian Cup in the 2018 Women's Football Team: sixth place, and reached the semi-finals in 2022. However, North Korea's withdrawal from the Asian Cup in that Women's Football Team reduced the value of the Philippines' performance.

2026 Women's Football Asian Cup, the Philippines was ambitious. In the qualifiers, they won all three games, scored a total of 14 goals and all scored empty opponents. Of the 23 players participating in the Southeast Asian Cup in August, as many as 17 are naturalized players growing up in the United States. In addition, substitute goalkeeper Nina Mayolo grew up in England, with only five players in the team being local players. If the players selected in the past year are included, there are as many as 35 naturalized players, from the United States, Canada, England, Australia and Norway. Among the naturalized players, there are many high-level players who have the experience of international players in the young women's football team, such as Angela Baird (Australia), Maz Pacheco (England), Leah Harrison (USA), Keira Hansson, Jacqueline Saveki (Canada), Sarah Eggswick, and Meryl Serrano (Norway). In August, the Philippines, which played with the second team, lost to Australia's U23 only 0-1, and its strength cannot be underestimated.

Today, the Philippines is second only to the traditional five Chinese, Japanese, North Korea, South Korea and Australia in Asia, and is comparable to Vietnam and Taipei. But with this group of naturalized players with European and North American youth internationals, the outside world believes that they have the hope of breaking the traditional pattern of Asian women's football team. Next year's Women's Asian Cup will also be the Women's World Cup qualifiers. The top six are directly shortlisted, and there are two other places to participate in the playoffs. The Philippine Women's Football Team has great hope of advancing for the second time. Another highlight of the qualifiers for the Asian Cup of Women's Football Association in the summer is the Pakistan Women's Football Team, who were once at the bottom of the Asian Women's Football Team. Pakistan has not even participated in any official competitions between 2014 and 2022. But after following the Philippines and mass naturalized players born in England and the United States, their strength has surged. The 22-man roster of participating in the Asian Cup qualifiers for the Women's Football Asian Cup includes 13 naturalized players, 9 of whom are from England and 4 are from the United States. 23-year-old forward Zahmena Malik is born in Tottenham women's youth training, 24-year-old forward Natia Khan plays for Blackburn women's football team, and 27-year-old Aksha Mushtak has played for Naples and Roma women's football team.

It is worth mentioning that almost all naturalized players in Pakistan have never set foot on this land before participating in the Women's Football Asian Cup qualifiers this year, but they are all proud to be able to represent the Pakistani women's football team. In the qualifiers, they defeated Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan, which are ranked higher in the world. In time, there are more and more naturalized players, and Pakistan will also become a powerful team that cannot be ignored in the Asian women's football team.

In the future Asian women's football field, the Chinese women's football team must be wary of "naturalized legions" such as the Philippines and Pakistan.