Thanawat Suengchitthawon - a Thai phenomenon under French radar

Thanawat Suengchitthawon by no mean is normal.

He is the first Thai player to be within the rank of Leicester City, a rising English football giant. The club itself is also owned by a Thai business family, the Srivaddhanaprabha family. The late President Vichai, who bought this club when it was in a poor state, played a major role in transforming this club as well as fostering the long, traditional Anglo-Thai relations. The successes of Leicester carried great favour and Thai players became internationally noticed. Vichai was loved, even after his death.

Thanawat has a quite privileged life. Born in Suphan Buri, he moved to France with his family as a child and thus was exposed to the French footballing system. Encouraged by his family to earn a living, he decided to represent the French Gaulois, playing for the U-17 side and was applauded for his two-footed abilities. He also came into the rank of Nancy, captaining its reserve side. He was almost selected to the French U-17 team to play in two U-17 European Championship but missed out of spots to players like Dan-Axel Zagadou, Yacine Adli and Amine Gouiri. But it was enough that Leicester decided to buy Thanawat into its youth team. Thanawat's journey to English top dog shows how far Thai football has made signs of progress and it has also been receiving the fruits it wanted.

Lucky for the Thais, Thanawat remains proud of his Thai root and is willing to commit his future to his birth country. In some way, it can be interpreted as a wise decision: although eligible to play for Les Bleus, it would be difficult for Didier Deschamps to ever focus on him. The former European and World champions' has plenty of players like Thanawat in his string, like Arnaud Kalimuendo-Muinga, Eduardo Camavinga, Houssem Aouar, Matteo Guendouzi, Odsonne Édouard, Marcus Thuram, Dayot Upamecano and Jonathan Ikoné, leave alone Kylian Mbappé. Fighting for a place within the French team is nearly impossible for Thanawat to do so.

But saying that French scouts would ignore Thanawat is unlikely. Thanawat's position as part of the Thai team could change by the moment he made his headline within Leicester City. Given the rise of the Foxes on the world's stage, players graduating from the club also get greater attention, Thanawat included. Pundits have pointed out the potential switching allegiance of Thanawat back to his adoptive nation once the UEFA Euro 2020 was over, partly due to the current French side appeared to be no longer invincible, notably discovered by Turkey and Ukraine, thus it needs to encompass new elements. For Thanawat, growing in such a professional environment and his familiarity with European football make the sense. He is double-footed, skilled in manipulating the ball and buying space in areas he doesn't have, qualified him to some kind of Zinedine Zidane's vision.

Now, he is on the board with the Thais led by Akira Nishino, former manager of Japan in the 2018 World Cup, for the crucial 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Unlike the previous one, this qualification is rockier for Thailand when they are trailing behind Vietnam and Malaysia, already played two games without a win against Vietnam and a shock away defeat to the Malay Tigers. If Thanawat could play over three games for the senior Thai side, he had already reached the maximum age of 21, he would have a harder time representing France due to the new FIFA rule, though it doesn't apply for the qualifiers like World Cup.

It is unclear if Thanawat would continue to commit his future for Thailand or he might change his nationality, though if judging by standard, France would stay above Thailand in every ranking. The future may decide where will Thanawat, the product of Leicester, head for.