VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF)
on March 16 selected five candidates for the coach position of the national
football squad.

French Coach Pierre Lechantre

There were many
familiar and famous candidates but they were not short-listed, for example
Hristo Stoichkov, Alfred Riedl, David Booth and Peter Ried.

All five finalists
have never worked in Southeast Asia. They are:
Hans Juergen Gede, Franz Goetz from Germany,
Pierre Lechantre from France,
Steve Sampson from the USA
and Eduardo Martinho Viganda from Portugal.

The French coach -
Pierre Lechantre – is numbered one in the list. He was very successful with the
Cameroon
national squad in 2000 (Olympic and African championships). He was also the
coach of national teams of Mali
and Qatar and many big clubs
in Western Asia and Africa, such as Al Ahli, Al Siliya, Al Rayyan, MAS Fes, Africa, Sfaxien.

Ranking second is
Steve Sampson. This is the only coach in the list who participated in the World
Cup and Copa America.
He was the first assistant to coach Bora Milutinovic at the World Cup 1994.
After Milutinovic resigned, Sampson became the chief coach of the US squad at the
Copa America 1995 and World Cup 1998. He led the Costa Rican team in 2002-2004.
Leaving Costa Rica,
Sampson worked for Los Angeles Galaxy club and was fired in 2006.

The third candidate
is Eduardo Martinho Viganda, who has worked for many clubs in Asia and Europe,
including the United Arab Emirates,
South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He was the coach of
the Portuguese national team and young team. His team ranked fourth at the
Olympic Atlanta 1996. In 1996, he took Saudi Arabia to the Asian
championship.

Hans Juergen Gede (Germany) was
among the five finalist in the VFF’s selection of a coach for the national
squad in 2008. Finally, VFF chose Henrique Calisto.

“Selecting the five
finalists from 25 applicants is difficult but information verification and
negotiation is the most difficult stage,” said a VFF official.

The VFF will name
the coach of the national team in late March.

PV