[Nationality and Eligibility]

48 minutes ago, Nacaw said:

The game still counts it under eligibility, because under some competition rules you don't need a specific nationality to qualify. Like home-grown players in EL and UCL, Pogba can be home-grown for England and Man Utd, even without being English. It might be something that's only used in Europe, so it's useless information in Malaysia, but that's the reason it's counting it. 

That makes a lot more sense now, thank you. It would be good if the game made this clearer, though I suppose it is implicit by Malaysian nationality not showing up on the Nationality screen.

[Nationality and Eligibility]

1 hour ago, Baodan said:

It is an option for the player and that is why the counter is there. In this specific case it's simply not a very appealing nationality to switch to, especially if dual citizenship is not an option.

I have personally had multiple players taking up EU citizenship to help me out with my non-EU cap in the French league. Those players usually came from "less attractive" nations outside and they usually switched to an "attractive" nation like France, so that might explain the ease with which I've experienced it. 

I have however also seen players reach the threshold for nationality without picking it up. 

Thanks both for your replies.

When managing in other leagues I have also seen players reach the threshold for nationality without picking it up - in these situations the available nationality still shows up on the Nationality screen, with a message like "Player does not see any benefit", e.g. a Portuguese player in another EU country.

However in this case Malaysian nationality doesn't even show up on the Nationality screen - so it's not as though they have the choice but are declining to take it up, it just doesn't appear to be an option. This leads me to suspect that it is not allowed for Malaysian nationality. And I have never seen a player give up their first nationality in order to take up a second nationality (e.g. giving up their original nationality to become French only) so I don't think this can happen in the game.

4 minutes ago, Nacaw said:

It really all comes down to if there's a reason for them to switch. Are there squad rules saying you need Malaysian players? Are they not playing for their NT, and could play for Malaysia's NT? When players take up a new nationality, there's a mention of why they do it, and those two things are the only ones I've encountered.

Yes, there are very strict squad rules both for the Malaysian league and Asian Champions League - max 4 foreign players. So this would definitely be a reason to take up the citizenship. The players in question are all South Americans who are a long way off their own NT but would be stars for Malaysia. 

Ran a quick test over lunch, holidaying 7 years into the future - numerous foreign players have met the eligibility threshold but not a single one has taken up citizenship.

I'm now fairly certain that it is not possible for a player to acquire Malaysian citizenship, which leads me back to the question of why bother tracking their eligibility? 

[Nationality and Eligibility]

I am managing in Malaysia. According to the Eligibility screen, players become eligible for Malaysian nationality after 5 years. I have several foreign players who have now hit this threshold, so "Days remaining" is now at 0.

However, Malaysia does not show up at all on the Nationality screen. One of my foreign players has previously played in Argentina, and this is displayed on the Nationality screen (it says he needs to reside in the country again to pursue citizenship), but not Malaysia. 

1. Is this because Malaysia does not allow dual nationality? There are dual nationals in the game but all of them had this when they came in to the game (either at the start or when being generated as a newgen). I haven't seen any examples of a player with no previous connection to Malaysia other than residence naturalising.

2. If this is the case, then why is the Eligibility counter there? In theory a player could renounce their existing citizenship and become Malaysian only (like Elkeson in China) but if this is not an option in game then why track days to eligibility? It is very misleading as I have been holding on to several players for years now in the hope that they would naturalise and no longer occupy a foreign player slot.