The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) received confirmation from FIFA after the review of his eligibility status. Bergson arrived in Malaysia in 2021 and completed his required five years of continuous residency earlier this year, Named reported.
Bergson is widely considered the most successful foreign striker in the history of the Malaysia Super League. The 35-year-old developed through the youth academies of top Brazilian clubs Internacional and Gremio before spending years competing in the top-flight leagues of Brazil, Portugal and South Korea.
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Brazilian-born striker Bergson da Silva (R) and half-Australian midfielder Brad Tapp are eligible to play for the Malaysia national team. Photo by FAM |
Since joining Malaysia’s strongest club Johor Darul Ta’zim, the prolific forward has scored 196 goals in 197 matches across all competitions. In the 2024-2025 MSL season, he set a league record by scoring 31 goals in 22 matches, and continued this dominant form in the 2025-2026 campaign with 27 league goals and a total of 42 goals in 47 overall appearances.
In addition to the Brazilian striker, FAM announced that defensive midfielder Brad Tapp, who is half-Australian, will also join the national team. Born in 2001, Tapp developed his skills in the Australian football system and played four seasons for the Central Coast Mariners, winning the national championship in the 2023-2024 season before transferring to Johor Darul Ta’zim in July 2026.
Bergson and Tapp are expected to join the Malaysia national team for the first time later this month as the squad gear up for the inaugural 2026 FIFA ASEAN Cup. The team are in Group A of Division 1, with matches against Bangladesh on Sept. 25, Indonesia on the 28th, and Singapore on Oct. 1.
Malaysia are awaiting further review from FIFA regarding the eligibility of two other Johor Darul Ta’zim players, Argentine forward Manuel Hidalgo and Australian veteran center-back Shane Lowry, based on the five-year residency rule.
The national team currently have 15 naturalized and mixed players available for selection, including 10 notable names: Daniel Ting, Stuart Wilkin, Ryan Lambert, and Declan Lambert (of English descent). La’Vere Corbin-Ong (Barbados), Junior Eldstal (Sweden), Quentin Cheng and Dominic Tan (China), Dion Cools (Belgium) and Nooa Laine (Finland), alongside 100% foreign players Endrick and Paulo Josue (Brazil), and Sergio Aguero (Argentina).
Seven naturalized players who featured in a 4-0 victory over Vietnam in the Asian Cup qualifiers in June 2025 are serving a 12-month ban by FIFA for falsifying documents to prove their Malaysian ancestry. This group include Imanol Machuca, Rodrigo Holgado, Facundo Garces, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal, Gabriel Palmero and Hector Hevel.
While the Malaysian government still recognizes these individuals as legal citizens, they remain ineligible to compete for the national team under current regulations of FIFA.