Coach Huu Thang denies conflict with Technical Director Gede

The coach of U22 Vietnam said that it is normal that the German expert is not on the list of coaching staff going to Malaysia to attend the 29th SEA Games.

Technical Director Jurgen Gede (right) highly appreciated Coach Huu Thang Thang and Hoang Anh Tuan. Photo: BĐ.

“We have no conflicts at all. I am surprised that people talk so much about Technical Director Jurgen Gede,” coach Nguyen Huu Thang shared.

Technical Director Jurgen Gede is considered the silent hero of Vietnamese football in recent times. Coaches Hoang Anh Tuan and Nguyen Hong Viet both said that the German expert has always followed closely, given useful advice, and contributed significantly to helping U20 Vietnam qualify for the U20 FIFA World Cup and U15 Vietnam defeat both Australia and host Thailand to win the Southeast Asian championship. However, Mr. Gede will not be with Coach Huu Thang at the AFF Cup 2016 and the upcoming 29th SEA Games.

“I know how to combine the intelligence of the Technical Director and other people. Mr. Gede still supports the team but does not necessarily have to be on the coaching staff list. According to the law, the coaching staff can only register six people, if the Technical Director is on this list, I will lose one person to support me. He will go through another channel, as a VFF official to scout the opponents that U22 Vietnam will face,” Coach Huu Thang added.

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Technical Director Gede said he always respects the coach's decisions. He is ready to stand behind and support every team.

“The VFF hired me, I worked with all my heart, not wasting any time. I want to contribute to the success of Vietnamese football. I not only support the big teams, the most important task I was assigned is to develop youth football so that in the future Vietnam will have a strong national team,” said the German expert.

U22 Vietnam is in the final stage of preparing for the 29th SEA Games. At 8pm today, July 29, the team will play a friendly match with the K-League All-Stars at My Dinh. On August 1, Coach Huu Thang and his team will go to Korea for a 10-day training session before going to Malaysia to begin their journey to conquer the gold medal.

“The match against the K-League All-Stars was held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vietnam-Korea diplomatic relations. Therefore, we did not play a life-or-death game. The team's goal is to play beautifully and dedicate ourselves to the fans. The players are always serious and dedicated because they are wearing the national team jersey and playing for the national team,” coach Huu Thang added.

According to VNE