French journalist: 'Quang Hai is about to join Metz'; Vietnam women's team leaves Thailand 'in the dust' on FIFA rankings

French journalist: 'Quang Hai is about to join Metz'

Sharing with Zing, journalist living in Paris, Jonathan Johnson, revealed that midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai's destination is most likely the Ligue 2 club Metz.

"I know about this deal. It seems that Quang Hai is about to join Metz. Some sources close to him have revealed this to me," said the writer of CBS Sports.

Previously, Zing's source also confirmed that Quang Hai's next club is in Ligue 2 (French Second Division). The former Hanoi club player and the new team have almost reached an agreement. The star of the Vietnamese national team only needs to pass the medical test before joining the new team.

Metz is a club based in Lorraine. The Saint-Symphorien team was relegated to Ligue 2 after an unsuccessful season in Ligue 1 (19th out of 20 clubs).

"Les Grenats" owns a squad with a total value of about 70 million euros. The club's most expensive star is right-back Fabien Centonze (7 million euros).

Quang Hai excitedly shows off photos from his recent stay in France. Photo:FBNV.

In the attacking midfielder position,Quang Haiwill have to compete with Farid Boulaya. Last season, the Algerian midfielder started 24 times for the club in the Northeast of France, scoring 4 goals and assisting 2. In addition, Metz also owns another creative midfielder, Amine Bassi, a former Morocco U23 player.

Metz's wingers are all from Africa. They have good speed and physical strength, such as Opa Nguette, Papa Ndiaga Yade (both Senegalese) or Didier Lamkel Ze (Cameroonian).

Competition at Metz will certainly be fierce next season. However, if Quang Hai comes to this club, he still has a chance because Metz has just reformed with the appointment of a new coach (Laszlo Boloni) and a series of changes in the leadership and youth coaching.

The midfielder born in 1997 has returned to Vietnam to take care of some necessary paperwork to play football in Europe. Before that, he had a trip to France to meet the representative of the new team. Quang Hai believes this is the right destination for him.

Ligue 2 2022/23 takes place from July 30, ending on June 3, 2023. In its 84th edition, Ligue 2 will have 20 teams competing for two promotion spots while Ligue 1 will also reduce the number of teams from 20 to 18.

Defeating Australia, U23 Japan won third place in U23 Asia 2022

Japan U23 won third place in the 2022 U23 Asia after a resounding 3-0 victory over Australia U23.

After losing in the semi-finals, both the U23 Japan and U23 Australia teams fielded reserve players in the third-place match of the 2022 AFC U23 Championship. With the quality of the players not too different between the main and reserve squads, Japan quickly dominated the game and scored an early opening goal. Kein Sato handled the ball very well in the U23 Australia penalty area before unleashing a powerful shot, putting U23 Japan ahead in the 7th minute of the match at Pakhtakor Stadium.

After the early goal, U23 Japan continued to press the field and created many opportunities but their strikers were unlucky. When Shunsuke Mito beat the Australian defense and goalkeeper, the ball hit the crossbar.

However, before the end of the first half, Japan still doubled the gap. In the 38th minute, the pressure from a corner kick by U23 Japan caused Kai Trewin to score an own goal and U23 Australia had to accept the second goal.

Japan U23 won third place in the 2022 AFC U23 Championship after a resounding 3-0 victory over Australia U23. Photo: AFC

In the second half, U23 Australia coach Morgan sent many players from the main squad onto the field. The team had more chances to score but could not take advantage of them.

Unable to score, U23 Australia conceded the third goal in the 64th minute when Shota Fujio scored with an unstoppable shot in the penalty area. The score of 3-0 in favor of U23 Japan was maintained until the end of the match.

With this result, U23 Japan won third place in the 2022 U23 Asia while Australia had to accept fourth place overall.

Vietnam women's team leaves Thailand in the dust on FIFA rankings

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has just announced the latest rankings for women's teams around the world.

According to the rankings, in the period from March 25 to June 17, the Vietnamese women's team was awarded 0.26 points despite winning the championship.SEA Games 31with an all-win record. However, this is a tournament that is not part of the FIFA scoring system, so wins are not added.

Thus, in Asia, the Vietnamese women's team is ranked 6th after North Korea (10th in the world), Australia (12th), Japan (13th), China (16th) and South Korea (18th).

If we only count Southeast Asia, the Thai women's team is ranked 43rd in the world and 8th in Asia. Next is Myanmar, ranked 48th in the world and 10th in Asia. The Vietnamese women's team is ranked first, 11 places ahead of Thailand and 16 places ahead of Myanmar.

Vietnam women's team

Meanwhile, the US women's team is still leading the FIFA rankings with 2104.25 points. Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Spain, England, Brazil and North Korea. FIFA will announce the next women's team rankings on August 5. At that time, the ranking of the Vietnamese women's team may change when coach Mai Duc Chung and his team will face a very strong team, France, in a friendly match.

The Vietnamese women's team is currently gathering to prepare for the 2022 AFF Women's Cup finals taking place this coming July. Before going to the Philippines to participate in this tournament, Huynh Nhu and her teammates will go to France to train and play a friendly match with the French women's team.

The team will leave for France on June 26. The friendly match with the French women's team is scheduled to take place in early July at the Stade de la Source.

On July 2, the team will travel to the Philippines to compete in the Southeast Asian Women's Football Championship. In this tournament, the Vietnamese women's team is in Group B with Myanmar, Timor Leste, Cambodia and Laos. Group A will include teams from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia.

The real reason Liverpool reduced the price to sell Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich

Liverpool made a £42.5m bid for Sadio Mane but ended up accepting a £31.5m offer from Bayern Munich. The real reason has been revealed.

The Bundesliga champions had two bids rejected by Liverpool before their latest offer was accepted.

Sources close to the Red Devils on Merseyside have described Bayern Munich's initial attempt to sign the Senegal striker as 'ridiculous'.

However, according to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Liverpool chose to compromise out of respect for Sadio Mane.

Liverpool decided to reduce the price of selling Sadio Mane to Bayern out of respect for this player.

The source said Mane had been pushing for a move to Bayern Munich in recent weeks but had done so out of respect for Liverpool, so the club allowed him to leave for a lower price.

Not to mention, Liverpool have also quickly found a suitable replacement - 22-year-old striker, Darwin Nunez.

Meanwhile, Sadio Mane came to Bayern to replace Lewandowski, who publicly wanted to leave. At the Allianz Arena, Mane was promised a leading role, along with a sky-high salary of 20 million euros/season - something Liverpool could not meet.