VietNamNet Bridge – A period of time after two overseas Vietnamese football players Toni Le Hoang and Ludovic Casset, failed to prove their talent in order to attend the national football championship and join the national football squads, some overseas Vietnamese players are seeking their luck in Vietnam.

Lee Nguyen (black) is talented but he can’t join the national squad of Vietnam.

Watching the Hanoi T&T Cup 2008, one may see Robert Dang Van, a Vietnamese Slovakian striker in the line for Song Lam Nghe An club. Previously, Hoang Anh Gia Lai club tested Lee Nguyen.

At the national U22 team, coach Mai Duc Chung tested Ngo Tuan Anh, a Vietnamese German and he will try out others, including Patrick Le Giang from Slovakia, Phan Truong Mike and Phan Manh Norman from Germany, and some others.

The Vice Chief of the National Teams and Young Training Department, Nguyen Trong Giap, said the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) always opens its doors to overseas Vietnamese players but he does not believe in the success of this policy.

“If an overseas Vietnamese footballer can prove his talent in the country where he lives, he would not return to Vietnam to try out,” Giap said.

Moreover, if he is really talented, it is difficult for him to integrate in an entirely strange environment. All overseas Vietnamese players who return Vietnam for try-outs are not financially supported by VFF, except for when they pass VFF’s tests.

Lee Nguyen is good, but…

After the National Assembly ratified the new Law on Nationality, which allows Vietnamese, particularly overseas Vietnamese, to have two nationalities, the number of overseas Vietnamese footballers who return home for try-outs at national squads and local football clubs has increased. However, only Lee Nguyen is considered as a talent, according to Giap.

Yet, Giap said, talented Lee Nguyen was not able to join the national squad because of new rules by FIFA that stipulate that any footballer who has played for a national team at any level and in any form of football (futsal, beach football, etc.) are not allowed to join the national team of another country.

Giap said this regulation was previously applied for A-grade national teams, but now it is imposed on young national teams as well.

In the case of Lee Nguyen, though he played only one match for the American team against China in June 2007 (did not breach FIFA rule), he was named in the US U20 team to take part in the World U20 Championships 2005 in the Netherlands, so he was not able to join the Vietnamese national squad.

(Source: TT&VH)