20-year old Isaac Angking was handed his debut for Puerto Rico earlier this week, in a friendly against the Dominican Republic.
Supporters of naturalised or mixed-heritage players on the Malaysia national team may find this latest development slightly worrying.
On January 20, Isaac Angking, the Puerto Rican midfielder with Malaysian heritage made his debut for the Puerto Rico senior team.
The Blue Hurricane played away to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, the first in two of their January friendly matches, preparation for their World Cup qualifying matches later in March.
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Angking’s side emerged winners in the encounter, with a penalty goal by Sidney Rivera in the first half injury time the only goal scored in the match. Anking’s debut appearance meanwhile came on in the 80th minute.
— Selecciones Nacionales de Puerto Rico (@HuracanAzulPR) January 19, 2021
The player who was recently released by Major League Soccer side New England Revolution will get a chance to make his second international appearance this Friday, when Puerto Rico face Guatemala, again away from home.
In March, Puerto Rico will play two World Cup qualification matches; the first against Saint Kitts and Nevis on the 24th, and then against Trinidad and Tobago four days later.
The 20-year old is reportedly also eligible for Malaysia as his mother hails from Sarawak. On top of this, he has also represented the United States at junior levels.
However, fans who want to see him put on the black and yellow of Malaysia should be relieved to know that his Puerto Rico outing this week has not deemed him ineligible for Malaysia yet.
Judging from changes to FIFA’s national team eligibility regulations announced late last year, Angking can still represent Malaysia in the future due to a number of reasons; he is not yet 21, Puerto Rico’s matches this week are not World Cup or confederation final tournament encounters, and he will not have played three matches for the Carribean nation yet this week.
