Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero is set to don the Malaysia national team jersey in the near future. Now hold on there, this isn’t the recently retired Sergio Aguero who had etched himself as a living Manchester City legend. This Aguero is Sergio Ezequiel Aguero, a man who is also a forward like his famous namesake and a person who has established himself in Malaysian football in recent years.
Aguero is eligible for Malaysian citizenship as of 2022 he has officially spent five years in the country. The Argentinian first arrived in Malaysia all the way back in 2017, being signed from Hungarian side FC Tatabanya by Melaka United. He only spent a year at the Mousedeers before going down a division to Selangor United in 2018, before switching teams to Penang FC in 2019. Aguero then went further down a division to the Liga M3 with Kuala Lumpur Rovers in 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the Malaysian third tier was shelved after just two matches.
After leaving KL Rovers, Aguero was snapped up by top-flight side Sri Pahang FC, who loaned him out to Perak FC for the 2021 season.
Now back with the Tok Gajah, Aguero found himself being included in the list of foreign players set to receive their Malaysian citizenship, alongside teammate Lee Tuck. Former Terengganu FC captain Tuck is also eligible for Malaysian citizenship, having played in the country since 2017 as well.
With Sri Pahang having completed their foreign player quota – with the additions of Mamadou Samassa, Billy Ketkeophomphone, Mahmoud Za’tara, and Johan Martial as well as Manuel Hidalgo re-signing with them after initially being released – the club’s management are still looking to retain the services of Aguero and Tuck, whose experiences were needed for the squad. In order to retain their services without violating the existing foreign player quota rule, Sri Pahang applied Malaysian citizenships for both Aguero and Tuck, which was approved by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).
Should Aguero and Tuck’s naturalization processes go through, they will join a list of players who had received their Malaysian citizenship through either their families or their lengthy stays in the country, such as Mohamadou Sumareh, Guilherme De Paula, Matthiew Davies, and David Rowley.