KUALA LUMPUR: Football great Datuk Zainal Abidin Hassan has urged national players to learn from their naturalised teammates.
Zainal believes there is no point in naturalised players lining the squad if local players do not learn a thing or two from them.
"At the moment, I think we want instant results to fix our rankings and there's always pros and cons to this (use of naturalised players) but what's good is that we get to strengthen the national team," said Zainal today.
"The locals need to learn from them, they need to fix whatever weaknesses they have so they can fight for a spot in the first eleven.
"I think if they can do this, it will help strengthen the team further, especially as they are going for the Asian Cup next year."
National coach Kim Pan Gon called up three naturalised players — Endrick Dos Santos (Johor Darul Ta'zim), Sergio Aguero (Sri Pahang) and Paulo Josue (KL City) — for the Merdeka Tournament earlier this month.
The national squad also features a number of heritage players who are of 50 per cent Malaysian descent such as Brendan Gan, Nooa Hamzah Laine, Junior Eldstal, Dion Cools, Darren Lok, Dominic Tan, Stuart Wilkin, Daniel Ting, Quentin Cheng, La'Vere Corbin-Ong and Matthew Davies.