VietNamNet Bridge – Domestic coaches refused or didn’t meet the criteria set by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) so the successor of Henrique Calisto will be a foreign coach. VFF has negotiated with five foreign candidates, focusing on the two German candidates.

German coach Falko
Goetz

VFF received over 40 applications of foreign coaches and shortlisted five candidates, including Juergen Gede, Falko Goetz (German), Pierre Lechantre (French), Eduardo Martinho Viganda (Portuguese), Steve Sampson (American).

VFF Chair Nguyen Trong Hy said that VFF could use a domestic coach and it is willing to pay $10,000 for a good one. Three Vietnamese candidates are Le Huynh Duc, Mai Duc Chung and Phan Thanh Hung.

However, VFF last week decided to recruit a foreign coach because domestic coaches refused the position or didn’t meet VFF’s criteria.

VFF officials met with five foreign candidates. VFF’s Vice Chair Pham Ngoc Vien said that the negotiation was smooth but to avoid any risk VFF will not disclose any information until everything is fixed.

According to Vien, the VFF may announce the name of the new coach on April 15. The new coach will lead both the national team and the U23 squad. His priority this year is to take the U23 team to the Southeast Asian Games championship.

There is no official information about the negotiations of the five candidates. However, according to an anonymous source from the VFF, two German coaches - Juergen Gede and Falko Goetz – takes the advantage over others because their requests are not very demanding and their training style is suitable to Vietnam’s football. Falko Goetz is said to take upper hand. VFF is impressed by his training style, which emphasizes discipline and physical strength.

The new coach will be assisted by the newly-established Football Player Section Council, which has ten domestic coaches who are working at the V-League.

PV