Why is SLNA's army 'clean' in the Vietnam U23 team?

After Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh had a brilliant year with U23 Vietnam, SLNA did not have any faces in this training session. Meanwhile, PVF had 10 faces, Hanoi had 8 players, Viettel and HAGL had 5 players. This is regrettable but was predicted early.

The players who are joining the U23 Vietnam team this time are those born between 1997 and 2001, the age when SLNA does not produce many outstanding players. The young players of SLNA born at this time include Dang Van Lam, Thai Ba Sang, Mai Sy Hoang, Nguyen Ba Duc, Nguyen Van Duc, Le Thanh Lam, Nguyen Van Viet... All of them have not yet affirmed their role in the professional playground.

Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh (born in 1996) are too old for the U23 tournament. Photo: Quang Minh

On the other hand, in the years 2005-2008, SLNA's youth training program went downhill and the quality of input was not strictly controlled. That is also the reason why after Van Duc and Xuan Manh, the younger players often failed in the National U19 and U21 tournaments or were selected for the SLNA first team.

Remember that Van Duc and Xuan Manh were born in 1996 and won the bronze medal at the U21 National Championship in 2017 and had 2 years of experience in the V.League before being noticed by Coach Park. Last year, U21 SLNA stopped at the group stage. The only 2 faces registered in the V.League 2019 are central defender Thanh Lam and Ba Duc, both of whom have not been tested for a single minute.

So where are the football talents from Nghe An going? Many faces who are capable enough to be in the U23 Vietnam squad will be absent because they are being treated for injuries at PVF such as Van Lam, Ba Sang, Van Duc. There is only one case of Nghe An origin appearing in the U23 Vietnam squad, Tran Van Buu, who is on the payroll of Viettel Club.

Not only U23 Vietnam this time, but the list of U19 Vietnam and U22 Vietnam in recent years has been missing SLNA players for the above reasons. Meanwhile, at that time, PVF, Hanoi and Viettel were rising strongly.

SLNA's generation of players born in 1997-2001 does not have many faces with the ability to compete at the highest level. Photo courtesy

Coach Dang Phuong Nam said: “It was predicted that the U23 Vietnam team does not have any SLNA players on their roster. This is a generation of players that SLNA is “deficient in”, meaning they are not of high quality. There are some players like Nguyen Van Duc and Nguyen Ba Duc, born in 1998 and 1999, who have not played much.”

Perhaps Nghe An fans will have to wait a little longer to see SLNA’s talents compete in the Vietnam U23 youth team. At least SLNA fans will have to wait until the young talents of U17 SLNA who won the runner-up position last year or the U15 SLNA faces who won the 2018 championship come of age. From now until then, we will gradually get used to the absence of Nghe talent in the Asian U23 tournaments, regional tournaments and SEA Games./.

List of participants in the 2020 AFC U23 Championship: No SLNA players

(Baonghean.vn) - To prepare for the race that promises many challenges at the 2020 AFC U23 Qualifiers, head coach Park Hang-seo has called up 37 players to the training and concentration list, from which the 23 best faces will be selected to participate in the continental arena. In this list, there are no players from SLNA Club.