Troussier wants to upgrade the national team with overseas Vietnamese players
During the press conference to discuss the June gathering of the national team and U23 on the morning of June 5, coach Troussier affirmed that the training aspect is not enough to upgrade the level of the Vietnamese team.
According to the French coach, the strength of the team comes from a good club foundation, in which it is necessary to establish a complete club-level tournament system with 40 to 50 matches per season. Besides, it is better to exploit the resources of overseas Vietnamese players, even though his identification is not abundant. "The list of scouts sent to me has about 20 good players of Vietnamese origin," said the 67-year-old military leader. "They reside in many places like Korea, Japan, Bulgaria, Russia, the Czech Republic or France."
Coach Troussier said that Vietnam is doing this slower than other countries in the region, such as Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia. He also gave the example of football teams in Africa being strong but not rooted in successful domestic training. "Their players were born in Europe and trained in the best football, so their strength was raised quickly", the military leader was dubbed the "White Witch Doctor", because of his many achievements. work in Africa, said.
Historically, Vietnamese football has seen many overseas Vietnamese players return to play, but the number of successes is not much, typically only Mac Hong Quan (Czech Republic) or Dang Van Lam (Russia). Recently, coach Troussier suddenly summoned midfielder Nguyen Duc An Khanh (Andrej Nguyen) of Sigma Olomouc club in the Czech Republic to U23 Vietnam. The 67-year-old military leader said that this is an accessible case because An Khanh has Vietnamese nationality and then discussed with his family to do ideological work for the player. "I hope this is the point to have a more flexible policy for overseas Vietnamese players," said coach Troussier. "Hopefully in the future there will be more similar individuals to add to the team."
Towards the 2026 World Cup, the French coach revealed that in theory there is a list of 100 potential players, of which the youngest is 17 years old and the oldest is 28 years old. In this gathering, he called 34 players to the national team, while U23 was 24. Troussier affirmed that there would be no boundary between the two levels, but mixed forces to practice together at the VFF Youth Football Training Center. From June 5 to 12, while waiting for enough troops, the players practice and are introduced to the principles of how to operate the game. From June 13 to 20 is a competition period consisting of four matches.
From 58 players, coach Troussier will choose the best group to play an international friendly against Hong Kong on June 15 at Lach Tray Stadium, Hai Phong. The remaining players played a friendly match with the Hanoi Police Club on June 14 at PVF Stadium, Hung Yen.
The two groups reunited in Hai Phong, playing the third friendly match against Hai Phong Club on June 17. After that, coach Troussier selected the best squad to continue preparing for the second international friendly match against Syria on June 20 at Thien Truong Stadium, Nam Dinh.
Coach Trousier was born in 1955 in Paris, France. In addition to his successes in Africa, he helped Japan win the 2000 Asian Cup and reached the 1/8 round of the 2002 World Cup. After experiencing many different clubs from France, Japan to China, in 2019 he joined Technical Director of PVF Youth Football Training Center, then led Vietnam U19 before parting in 2021. When Coach Park Hang-seo's contract expired at the end of January, VFF reached an agreement to bring Coach Troussier back again. Managing the head coach of the national team and U23 Vietnam from March 1, 2023 to July 31, 2026. This is a record contract term with a coach in Vietnam.
