Worrying things in SLNA
(Baonghean) - Coach Hoang Anh Tuan has just announced the list of 30 players of U20 Vietnam preparing for the historic journey at the FIFA World Cup. This list includes both players playing in the second division and players playing in the V.League.
The club with the largest number of players participating is Hanoi FC with 7 people including: Goalkeeper Sy Huy, Minh Hieu, defender Van Hau, Van Toi, midfielder trio Quang Hai, Minh Di and Thai Quy; next is a team playing in the First Division, Viettel, contributing 5 players, HAGL 4 players, Binh Dinh Club playing in the Second Division also contributing a player, Ho Tan Tai.
It is worth mentioning that in this list of 30 players, there is no name of a young player from the SLNA training camp. This is really bad news for Nghe An football, because this is the first time Vietnamese youth football has participated in the world's biggest arena, but SLNA young players were not present in this historic reunion.
Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporters, many football experts said that coach Hoang Anh Tuan may have chosen players according to his playing style, but no matter what, they are still young players with the best form at present.
SLNA is a football training center with a long tradition, having contributed a lot to the national team, but not having any players selected in the 30-player squad to participate in the U20 Vietnam is sad and alarming for the current youth training quality of SLNA.
![]() |
The U20 Vietnam squad participating in the FIFA World Cup does not include the names of young SLNA players. Photo: Internet |
According to the explanation of the SLNA club leader, the reason for the current decline in youth training of SLNA is that "we improve one, they improve ten". Due to limited financial conditions, the diet and treatment for young players at SLNA is not as good as centers such as HAGL, Viettel, Hanoi, VPF... so "if any young player is good, these centers will welcome him, the rest is our turn". Therefore, from "making waves" in national youth tournaments, in recent years SLNA has been empty-handed from U11 to U21.
In an interview with Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh - Chairman of SLNA Club once confided: "If we want to raise the level of Vietnamese football, we must have fundamental and systematic investment right from the beginning. To do so, we must have many quality and prestigious youth training centers such as HAGL, Viettel, SLNA, Hanoi T&T... and we must socialize football to have many models like the current HAGL-Arsenal youth training center.
With quality players, domestic tournaments will be more attractive, attracting spectators to the stadium, the national team will also be stronger... then, the face of Vietnamese football will certainly change".
Therefore, the fact that no young players from SLNA are present in the U20 Vietnam squad this time is a worrying thing for SLNA’s first team’s human resources in the following years. If there are no excellent young players now, in a few years, SLNA will have difficulty finding a source of successor players capable of taking on the task in V.League…
Duc Dung