Nguyen Thai Sung, 16, Da Nang, passed a strict selection process to receive a 3-year scholarship at the Aspire Football Institute in Qatar.

Nguyen Thai Sung.

Vietnam had three representatives at the final round of the “Football Dreams” competition, all of them from Da Nang, including Nguyen Thai Sung, Dang Anh Tuan and Ma Van Tuan.

Vietnamese players competed with others from 13 countries like Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Paraguay, Kenya and Thailand at the Aspire Institute in Qatar. Sung impressed their experts to win a 3-year scholarship to study at this institute.

In the next three years, he will study both culture and football and have opportunity to play football in Europe or Asian countries. However, if Sung wants to play football at home, Aspire Institute will respect his wish and will not ask for any compensation.

At the Aspire Institute, the Vietnamese player will receive a monthly stipend as follows: $275/month in the first year; $300/month in the second year and $325/month in the third year. His family or guardian will also receive $16,500 for three years.

After the 2009-2010 academic year, Thai Sung will go to Qatar to group with 19 other scholarship winners in the three-year course.

The “Football Dreams” program seeks football talent and has been held for three years in Asia and Africa, with participation by coaches from young teams of Barcelona club, who discovered current football stars like Lionel Messi, Giovani dos Santos and Bojan Krkic. In Vietnam, the programme is organised by Aspire Training Centre in Qatar and the Vietnam Football Federation. 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.

Vietnam joined this program the first time in 2008 and had three representatives in the final round, but none were selected.

PV