AFC unexpectedly names Quang Hai; MU announces new player worth 29 million pounds
MU announced a new player worth 29 million pounds; AFC unexpectedly named Quang Hai; Vietnam team continuously said goodbye to Korean assistants... are notable sports news in the past 24 hours.
MU announces new recruit for 29 million pounds
Recently, MU has officially recruited defender Patrick Dorgu. The Danish player will play for MU with a contract until 2030, with a 1-year extension option.
To get the signature of the 20-year-old player, MU had to pay 25 million pounds upfront, plus 4 million pounds to be paid later depending on Patrick Dorgu's performance at Old Trafford.
Speaking to the media when joining MU, Patrick Dorgu said: “I am extremely proud to be a MU player. This is a very special day for my family. I can't wait to work with coach Ruben Amorim. His vision for the team and the future of the club is really exciting. He has a clear plan for my development and I feel that MU is the perfect place for me to develop my potential and realise my great ambitions.”
With the successful recruitment of Patrick Dorgu, coach Amorim is expected to help MU solve the problem on the left wing when Malacia and Luke Shaw are constantly injured.
AFC unexpectedly calls Quang Hai's name
The AFC Asian Cup homepage has just surprisingly named Quang Hai ahead of the 2025 AFC U20 Finals, held in China from February 12 to March 1, 2025.
Recently, the homepage of the Asian Football Confederation reviewed some outstanding stars of the U20 teams in the past, includingMidfielder Nguyen Quang Hai AFC wrote: "The moment before they became the stars of their country's football. Do you recognize who they are?".
AFC's mention of Quang Hai is not too surprising because 9 years ago, the midfielder of the Vietnam national team made a great contribution to bringing the Vietnam U20 team to the semi-finals of the U19 Asian Cup, thereby winning the right to play in the U20 World Cup Finals in 2017. At that time, Quang Hai was known as the "king of youth tournaments".
Besides Quang Hai, the Asian Football Confederation's homepage also mentioned Ritsu Doan, Takefusa Kubo (Japan), Sardar Azmoun (Iran); Omar Abdulrahman (UAE), Witan Sulaeman (Indonesia) or Eldor Shomurodov (Uzbekistan). These are all stars who grew up from youth teams of countries in the continent.
Vietnam U17 match schedule at U17 Asia 2025
The 2025 AFC U17 Championship Finals will take place from April 3 to 20 in Saudi Arabia, featuring 16 of the continent's strongest youth teams.
Most recently, AFC announced the detailed match schedule of the Vietnam U17 team and the remaining 15 opponents in the 2025 AFC U17 finals.
According to the official match schedule announced by the Asian Football Confederation, Vietnam U17 will have a tough journey starting from April 4 with a match against Australia U17, then on April 7, the "Golden Dragons" will face Japan U17. Finally, on April 10, there will be a match against UAE U17.
Since the 2025 U17 World Cup held in Qatar, FIFA has decided to increase the number of teams participating in the tournament to 48. Accordingly, Asia will have 8 slots for the first time. To determine the 8 slots of AFC to participate in the world youth playground, AFC said that 8 teams that pass the group stage in the Final Round will participate in the 2025 U17 World Cup.
With this format, the opportunity for U17 Vietnam to participate in the U17 World Cup 2025 is completely possible if the red team has an impressive performance in the group stage and is present in the quarterfinals.
Despite being in a difficult group, U17 Vietnam still has reasons to hope. The team possesses many promising young talents who have shown impressive performance in the qualifying round.
Vietnam team says goodbye to Korean assistants one after another
After goalkeeper coach Lee Won Jae left, many Korean assistants also did not continue working for the Vietnamese team after the 2024 ASEAN Cup (AFF Cup).
Language assistant Lee Seong Joo has just said goodbye to the Vietnam team. Lee Seong Joo is in charge of translating between Korean and English, and is regularly present at press conferences for the Vietnam team at the ASEAN Cup 2024.
The Korean assistant emotionally said: “What makes me feel great is the recognition. After the Vietnamese team won the ASEAN Cup, my friends in Korea called me. They said that Korean television and social networks paid special attention to the tournament."
In addition, two physiotherapy assistants, Choi Sung Rak and Yoo Seung Min, have also left the Vietnam team to return to Korea. During the ASEAN Cup campaign, the silent contributions of the two physiotherapy assistants helped the Vietnamese players recover their physical strength as quickly as possible to always be ready to compete on the field. Some players can even play 90 minutes in many consecutive matches.
Before the 3 assistants above, the goalkeeper coach Vietnam team, Mr. Lee Won Jae, has also returned to his country. Mr. Lee Won Jae is known as a former Korean football star, who played for the Korean national team for 18 years, played 132 international matches, was named to the K-League best team 10 times, and won many outstanding individual awards. He also made history by participating in 4 World Cups in 1994, 2002, 2006, and 2010.
Saying goodbye to 4 Korean assistants, VFF is looking for new replacements, in preparation for the training session next March, in the opening match of the final qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup against Laos./.
