Taipei, June 9 (CNA) Playing online games isn't necessarily a waste of time. Without it, Taiwan's Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) wouldn't have found Xavier Chen, a Taiwanese-Belgian professional footballer who the association hopes will play for Taiwan internationally.
Ginola Chen, CTFA public relations director, found the name "Xavier Chen" when he was playing an online FIFA football game last October and thought it was probably a "patch" or a role created by gamers.
But it only took a Google search for him to realize he was wrong. The real-life Xavier Chen is a 26-year-old right back in KV Mechelen, a Belgian First Division team in Antwerp Province, who had been a captain on the Belgian under-19 national team.
After weeks of e-mail correspondence with the footballer, Ginola Chen knew the recruiting opportunity was too good to miss for Taiwan, currently ranked 167th in the FIFA world rankings. He flew to Brussels, Belgium and spent a week trying to persuade the Taiwanese-Belgian, who has a Taiwanese father and a French mother, to play for Taiwan.
"That's the beauty of the Internet -- a modern way to find players, isn't it? " Xavier Chen said in Taipei Tuesday when he was greeted at the Taipei Stadium by dozens of television cameras and reporters.
In his first trip to Taiwan in 15 years, Xavier Chen plans to meet his grandfather, a former Taiwan diplomat, and to get to know Taiwan better, Ginola Chen said. "We're not trying to force him into making any decision, " he added.
Xavier Chen said that while his family still keeps some Taiwanese traditions -- mostly foods, especially the mapo tofu his mother cooks -- his knowledge of Taiwan and Mandarin has been limited because his father insisted on full integration into Belgian culture.
He said that he hasn't made any decision on joining the Taiwanese national team, but Taiwan "is my father's country -- and mine as well -- which has a special part in my heart. I think my family will be glad if I choose to play for Taiwan, " he said.
China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, also made a run to recruit Chen in April, three months after CTFA contacted him. Chen said he was open to meet with anyone to "check every opportunity" and that Taiwan was definitely one of the options.
A report on a Chinese media Web site in April, however, said that because Beijing does not accept dual citizenship, Chen would have to relinquish his Belgian citizenship to represent China. Taiwan allows dual citizenship.
"It's a dream for every player to play for a national team, " he said, adding that at 26, the window of opportunity for him to earn a place on the Belgian national team is closing fast and that was why he wanted to keep his options open.
For Chen to play on the Taiwan squad, the CTFA will have to negotiate with Chen's club in Belgium. Insurance and travel between Europe and Taiwan during the European football season will have to be taken into consideration, Ginola Chen said.
Xavier Chen, who reportedly earns 700,000 euros (NT$27 million) annually with Mechelen, is unlikely to play regularly in Taiwan, where football is a minor sport and the domestic league is weak.
"It's a shame because football is popular in the world. I don't know why it couldn't be popular in Taiwan, " Xavier Chen said.
If he were to agree to play for Taiwan, it is likely his first games would be Asian Cup qualifiers next year.
Chen is scheduled to fly back to Belgium Saturday, which means he will watch the opening game of the South Africa World Cup Friday in Taipei. The University of Brussels law school graduate said his favorite player is French winger Franck Ribery and hopes France does well in South Africa.
This is not the first foreign-born Taiwanese player the CTFA has tried to recruit. The association has also been in contact with Taiwanese-Spanish player Victor Chou, an 18-year-old defender who plays for the youth team of UD Salamanca. To date, however, a foreign-born player has never represented Taiwan on the national team. (By Chris Wang) enditem/bc