The gain outweighs the loss! La Liga s main central defender was suspended for 1 year and only represented Malaysia twice before being found to have committed fraud.

On October 7, FIFA announced the violations of seven naturalized players in Malaysia and confirmed that the grandparents of these seven players were not born in Malaysia. The seven naturalized players were banned from playing for 12 months.

This includes Alaves central defender, 26-year-old Facundo Garces. Garces was born in Argentina. He officially joined Alaves in January this year and signed a contract until 2028. Garces started all the first 6 rounds of La Liga this season.

As for the national team, Garces obtained Malaysian citizenship in June and has since played 2 games for Malaysia, one Asian preliminaries (against Vietnam) and one friendly match (against Singapore).

After investigation by FIFA, Garces’ grandfather was from Santa Fe de la Cruz, Argentina, not Malaysia, and was banned from playing for 12 months.