Rejuvenating the Vietnamese football team

For the first time under the reign of coach Kim Sang-sik, young players make up more than 30% of the national team's personnel. This is considered a sign of the team's rejuvenation.

Young striker Nguyen Thanh Nhan was called up to the Vietnam national football team.

Up to 8 names from the U23 Vietnam team were included by coach Kim Sang-sik in the list of the Vietnamese football team registered to play two matches with Nepal in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers taking place this October. Some opinions say that because these are 2 matches against a very weak opponent, and taking place in Vietnam after Nepal chose Thong Nhat Stadium (HCMC) as their home ground due to the unstable situation in the country, coach Kim Sang-sik's use of many young players is nothing special.

However, if we look at the list, we will see that in addition to the 8 U23 players, the rest are all experienced pillars, wearing the national team jersey from 2018 until now. If we underestimate the opponent Nepal, considering these are just 2 practice matches, coach Kim Sang-sik should have taken advantage of them to test new faces discovered from V-League or players who used to sit on the bench to help them gain experience in international competition. In addition, parallel to the national team, the U23 team is also currently focusing on going to the UAE to train and play 2 matches with U23 Qatar. This shows that coach Kim Sang-sik takes the 2 matches with Nepal quite seriously and bringing many U23 players to the national team shows that he considers them national players, starting the process of rejuvenating the team.

In fact, Mr. Kim's predecessor, French coach Philippe Troussier, had done this before, but in a more extreme way, which was to bring up a lot and use the young players to the maximum, making them "overwhelmed" in big matches. Meanwhile, maintaining veterans shows that coach Kim Sang-sik is implementing rejuvenation in a more cautious way. It is likely that in the upcoming 2 matches with Nepal, there will be a match or a half where all the U23 players will be put on the field.

Coach Kim Sang-sik's decision to rejuvenate the team is a welcome sign from the next generation, who have just won the U23 Southeast Asian Championship and won tickets to the U23 Asian Cup 2006. In addition to the 8 players selected for the national team, the rest of the U23 Vietnam team still has abundant personnel, including 3 overseas Vietnamese players who are highly appreciated for their quality when performing well in the V-League: Viktor Le, Nguyen Vadim and Tran Thanh Trung. They will be the core of the U22 Vietnam team at the SEA Games and then the U23 Asian finals. These series of major tests are expected to reveal more future national players in the process of building a team for the ambition of participating in the 2030 World Cup.

Observers highly appreciate the way coach Kim Sang-sik has done things. The Korean coach has had a suitable approach to Vietnamese football, maintaining short-term achievements while still having a long-term plan to build the team with tight steps.

Although there is an increase in young players, in reality this number only accounts for 30%, not too much but ensures that each position is still rejuvenated. This is similar to the way he supports the maximum but still moderate use of naturalized players.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/tre-hoa-doi-tuyen-bong-da-viet-nam-20251003105227906.htm