{"id":2489,"date":"2017-04-01T10:28:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T01:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=2489"},"modified":"2022-08-25T20:21:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T11:21:21","slug":"7-european-footballers-southeast-asian-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2017\/04\/01\/7-european-footballers-southeast-asian-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"7 European footballers of Southeast Asian origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite being a minnow in world football, South-East Asia has a vibrant diaspora of footballers playing across Europe who were once eligible to represent their native countries.<\/p>\n

Some have already starred for the European national teams and established themselves as star players both at club and international levels, while the others still could switch their allegiances.<\/p>\n

Football Tribe Asia puts together a list of top players of South-East Asian descent who have made their names in Europe.<\/p>\n

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Radja Nainggolan – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1.\u00a0Radja Nainggolan<\/strong><\/p>\n

His first name means ‘King’ in Bahasa Indonesia. The 28-year-old was born in Antwerp to a Belgian mother and an\u00a0Indonesian father.<\/p>\n

At the age of 17, he moved to Italy and started his career with Piacenza before joining Serie A’s Cagliari in 2010. Radja, who currently plays for AS Roma, initially was on Indonesia national team radar during his young age before deciding to represent Belgium senior team at international level in 2009.<\/p>\n

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David Alaba – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2.\u00a0David Alaba<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Vienna in 1992, the son of a Nigerian father and Filipino mother, Alaba had a rare mix of genes, one half that was of proven football pedigree of African descendant.<\/p>\n

He started his footballing career in Austria before Bayern Munich found the talented youngster in summer of 2008. Alaba eventually decided to represent his birth country, Austria, despite being eligible to play for both Nigeria and Philippines.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Yohan Cabaye – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3.\u00a0<\/strong>Yohan Cabaye<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cabaye has established himself as one of French football stars since making his professional debut with Lille in 2004. He went on to make 191 appearances and scored 31 goals in total for Lille, winning the league and cup double in the 2010-11 season.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old midfielder has a Vietnamese descent through his paternal grandmother, which was revealed during a number of interviews with several French media. Cabaye has stated he would like to visit the country, possibly to contribute to the development of football there.<\/p>\n

The former Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United playmaker, who has been capped 48 times by France, now plays for Crystal Palace in the English Premier League.<\/p>\n

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Dion Cools – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4. Dion Cools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dion was born to a Belgian father and Malaysian mother in Kuching, before the couple moved to Belgium after their marriage more than 20 years ago. The 20-year-old spent time with several Belgian clubs during his youth career before debuting in professional level with Oud-Heverlee Leuven in 2014.<\/p>\n

After spending one season in Leuven, he moved to Club Brugge in the summer of 2015. Dion represented Belgium U-18, U-19 and U-20, but is still eligible to play for Malaysia, as he hasn’t been capped at the senior level yet.<\/p>\n

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Nigel De Jong – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5. Nigel De Jong<\/strong><\/p>\n

De Jong is of Surinamese-Dutch descent; Surinamese parentage from his father and Dutch and Indonesian\u00a0from his mother.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed\u00a0“The Destroyer”, De Jong enjoyed a successful career where he has played for Ajax Amsterdam, Manchester City, AC Milan, and currently Galatasaray. He won the league at Ajax in the 2003\/04 season, as well as the league and cup double at Man City in the 2011\/12 season.<\/p>\n

De Jong represented the Netherlands 81 times in total and appeared at two Euros (2008, 2012) and two World Cups (2010, 2014).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Alphonse Areola – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6.\u00a0Alphonse Areola<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 24-year-old goalkeeper is eligible to play for the Philippine senior team due to his parents being both of Filipino heritage and in 2011 was invited by team manager Dan Palami to consider playing for the national team.<\/p>\n

Areola currently plays for the French champions Paris Saint-Germain. He has represented France at every youth level and was part of the France U-20 side that won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2013.<\/p>\n

Areola was previously been called up to the French national team as part of the build-up for UEFA Euro 2016, but didn’t make the final squad. He would be called up to the senior squad again on three separate occasions but has yet to make an appearance for France.<\/p>\n

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Shaun Maloney – Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7.\u00a0Shaun Maloney<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maloney was born in Sarawak, Malaysia to British parents before his family moving back to Scotland when he was five years old.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old attacking midfielder, who currently plays for Hull City, admitted that he had a chance to play for his birth nation, Malaysia, but never got any contacts from them.<\/p>\n

Maloney’s most famous stints were at Scottish club Celtic, where he played for 11 seasons, making 215 appearances and scoring 52 goals. He has also played for former Premier League sides Aston Villa and Wigan Athletic, as well as spending 8 months in the United States with Chicago Fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite being a minnow in world football, South-East Asia has a vibrant diaspora of footballers playing across Europe who were once eligible to represent their native countries. Some have already starred for the European national teams and established themselves as star players both at club and international levels, while the others still could switch their allegiances. Football Tribe Asia puts together a list of top players of South-East Asian descent who have made their names in Europe. 1.\u00a0Radja Nainggolan His first name means ‘King’ in Bahasa Indonesia. The 28-year-old was born in Antwerp to a Belgian mother and an\u00a0Indonesian father. At the age of 17, he moved to Italy and … Continue reading “7 European footballers of Southeast Asian origins”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":27202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,855],"tags":[600,597,599,596,95,598],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27201,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions\/27201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}