Three Vietnamese U15 football players will go to Qatar to contest for spots in a 3-year training course.

The three U15 football players: Mai Van Tuan, Dang Thanh Tuan and Nguyen Thai Chung.

The final round of selection of the Football Dreams in Vietnam closed on July 26 at the HCM City-based Thanh Long Sports Centre. Three players from Da Nang, Mai Van Tuan, Dang Thanh Tuan and Nguyen Thai Chung, defeated 47 other contestants to become the Vietnamese representatives in Qatar.

The three young players will train alongside U15 contestants from 13 countries like Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Paraguay, Kenya, and Thailand at the Aspire Institute in Qatar.

The young players will practice for three weeks and then play against U17 teams of AC Milan, Manchester United, Barcelona and Espanyol. The best players will receive three-year scholarships to the Aspire Institute to become professional footballers.

Football Dreams, a programme to seek football talents, has been held for three years, with the participation of coaches of young teams of Barcelona club, who discovered football stars like Lionel Messi, Giovani Dos Santos and Bojan Krkic.

Football Dreams was carried out in 12 countries this year, including two Asian countries – Vietnam and Thailand – beginning in April. The qualifier round took place at 60 stadiums, with the participation of nearly 20,000 boys between the ages of 13-15. In the second round, the number of contestants fell to around 10,000. The best 50 players were chosen by experts from Barcelona for the final round at the Thanh Long Sports Centre in HCM City.

Last year, three Vietnamese players went to Qatar for one month under this programme but they failed to be among the 20 players who earned scholarships to continue training at the Aspire Institute.

Aspire Institute is the world’s largest football training centre. It was built in 2006 to serve the Asian Games, at a cost of more than $2 billion.

VietNamNet/VNE