Young stars of Vietnam U23 waiting to shine in the 2026 AFC U23 Qualifiers

TPO - Khuat Van Khang, Pham Ly Duc or Nguyen Quoc Viet... are all young stars expected to shine in the U23 Vietnam team participating in the 2026 U23 Asia Qualifiers, taking place this September in Viet Tri (Phu Tho).

Khuat Van Khang is a prominent face in the midfield of the U23 Vietnam team. Before the training session, he had an impressive performance in the The Cong Viettel shirt in the third round of LPBank V-League 1-2025/26 when he helped the team win 2-0 against Becamex HCMC. Technical and creative, Van Khang is also the most experienced player in the U23 Vietnam team.

In the U23 Vietnam striker line, the most mentioned name is Dinh Bac ( Hanoi Police). However, in terms of potential, experts also put their hopes on Nguyen Quoc Viet (Ninh Binh). Born in 2003, Quoc Viet grew up from the Nutifood Academy youth training center, then was brought to HAGL by Mr. Duc. Thanks to basic training in Nutifood's professional environment, Quoc Viet possesses excellent basic skills. He won the title of Top Scorer of the U19 Southeast Asia tournament in 2022 with 5 goals, Top Scorer of the national U17, U19 and U21 tournaments.

Another notable face, predicted to be a breath of fresh air for U23 Vietnam in the upcoming tournament is Viktor Le. The Vietnamese-American player currently playing for Ha Tinh is of particular interest to coach Kim Sang-sik, along with another face, Tran Thanh Trung (Ninh Binh). The Korean coach said that he and his colleagues are still closely following the development of Vietnamese-American players to find new resources for the Vietnamese team.

Not noticed by fans, but in the defense, Pham Ly Duc is a face that receives a lot of expectations. At the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament that just took place in Indonesia, Pham Ly Duc was trusted by coach Kim Sang-sik, often given a starting position. Similar to Quoc Viet, Pham Ly Duc also grew up from Nutifood Football Academy. He has an ideal height of 1m82, a solid and strong playing style. Ly Duc made a good impression on coach Kim Sang-sik and he brought him to the Vietnam national team, playing in the match against Malaysia in the first leg of the 2027 Asian Cup 3 Qualifiers.

The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will take place in Viet Tri (Phu Tho) this September. In Group C, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team will meet U23 Bangladesh (September 3), U23 Singapore (September 6) and U23 Yemen (September 9). To serve fans, tickets for the matches are sold exclusively online on the OneU app, with three prices of 100,000 VND, 200,000 VND and 300,000 VND. VFF also recently announced that it will sell tickets directly at Phu Tho Sports Stadium, starting from September 2.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/nhung-sao-tre-u23-viet-nam-cho-toa-sang-o-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-2026-post1774511.tpo