Ngo Tuan Anh (L) in the trial match with veterans of the Railway Football Club in Hanoi

Ngo Tuan Anh, a German footballer of Vietnamese origin, went “gently” through his paces in a try-out in Hanoi Tuesday, finding it “very difficult” to prove himself against footballers not of the same age or skill levels.

In the trial match, played the day after he arrived from Germany, the 21- year old center forward of the Germany-based Dynamo Dresden Club moved casually and did not lose much energy, being able to adapt himself to the weather.

He had to concede the ball and did not dare to hit his “rivals” hard in many situations as they were older and the ground surface was rough. He did not, therefore, compete fiercely for the ball.

Tuan Anh spoke in Vietnamese after the match, but was finding it difficult to express himself fully, so his father, Ngo Viet Dat, helped out.

Dat said Tuan Anh was brought to Germany as an infant and began to play football at age five. “Tuan Anh has a great desire to come back to Vietnam to play for the U.22 team but that depends on his ability,” he said.

Coach Chung said Anh was of limited height, but could play with his head and was physically strong. “It’s still impossible to say anything and evaluate him accurately because I will have to test his ability in strategic coordination,” Chung said when pressed on his final decision on the guest footballer.

Tuan Anh is among quite a few overseas Vietnamese players in the running to play football in and for Vietnam.

Coach Hung Phi, vice chairman of Sao Do Football Club, who had recommended Tuan Anh to coach Mai Duc Chung, said he would leave for Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow to receive three other overseas Vietnamese footballers: two twins, Phan Mike and Phan Norman, who are 18 and play for Herthaberlin Club in Germany, and Le Giang Patrick from Slovakia. They will begin their internships on December 25, he said.

Regarding Le Giang Emil, a well-known footballer in Slovakia, Phi said that the Vietnamese press still mentions him as an excellent forward of the U.19 Slovakian football team, but do not probably know that his brother, Le Giang Patrick, one year younger, is also an excellent goalkeeper. Patrick is the number-one goalkeeper of the U.17 Slovakian national team, he said. Both brothers are 1.88 meters tall.

The brothers come from Filakovo, a poor village in Slovakia. Their father, Le Giang Nam, is an interpreter and has been unemployed for many years; their mother, Le Giang Katarina, is a linguistics teacher and does not earn much money.

Le Giang Emil has been the captain of Slovakia’s U.17, U. 18 and U.19 teams and is sought by many clubs. His teams do not need an interpreter because the young man is fluent in English, French, Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovakian. A Slovakian billionaire, chairman of the MSK Zilina Club, bought Emil after paying one million euros (US$1.4 million) as the training cost to Emil’s former club.

Reported by Lan Phuong