Just 17 minutes before the Vietnam national team, a Malaysian star lost his entire career

Imanol Machuca stands out as the most unfortunate among the 7 naturalized Malaysian players banned by FIFA for a year.

On the evening of November 3rd, FIFA's Appeal Committee issued a decision to reject all appeals from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and the 7 naturalized players concerning the disciplinary sanctions previously imposed by FIFA's Disciplinary Committee.

Among the 7 unlawfully naturalized players, Imanol Machuca is arguably the saddest case. He only played in the last 17 minutes of the 4-0 victory against Vietnam and is now serving a 12-month ban from FIFA. This one-year suspension abruptly ended Machuca’s career just when he was at his peak form.

In the 2025 season, Imanol Machuca appeared 23 times for Velez Sarsfield across all competitions, including starting in two finals that led the team to championship titles. Due to these impressive performances, Velez Sarsfield’s management had considered activating the option to buy him permanently.

However, Machuca’s loan contract officially ended. According to Argentina’s Cronica, Machuca was loaned to Velez Sarsfield from Fortaleza since January 2025, with the contract expiring at year-end. Currently, Velez Sarsfield’s management has confirmed they will not exercise the purchase option for this player.

Having the chance to develop his career in Argentina’s top league at his peak, Machuca accepted to play for Malaysia’s national team but only played 17 minutes before receiving a one-year suspension. This is clearly a tragic ending for the talented Argentine-born player. If he had not appeared in the match against Vietnam, he would not have faced such a harsh penalty.

According to FIFA’s conclusion, the 7 players—Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Tomás Garcés, Rodrigo Julián Holgado, Imanol Javier Machuca, João Vítor Brandão Figueiredo, Jon Irazábal Iraurgui, and Hector Alejandro Hevel Serrano—along with the Football Association of Malaysia violated Article 22 of FIFA’s Disciplinary Code, related to forgery and falsification of documents to legitimize their eligibility to play for Malaysia’s national team.