Overseas Vietnamese player train with Vietnam squad again !

Julian Crasbercu

French player Julien Crasbercu, whose parents are Vietnamese, was permitted to take part in a training match of Vietnam national team yesterday afternoon by Henrique Calisto. 22-year-old player Julien had written a letter to VFF and Calisto about his wish to contribute himself to Vietnam football and Vietnam national team if possible. His desire is to take Vietnamese citizenship and join a V-League side.



As far as I know, his former club is Agen SU which plays in Championnat de France amateur 2 (the 5th highest league in French football). It means he will have to try a lot to impress Vietnamese clubs because I believe the level of V-League is approximately equal to the level of Championnat National (the 3rd highest French league).

By the way, I have some thoughts on the role of VFF in the matter of overseas Vietnamese players. Prior to Julien Crasbercu, some overseas Vietnamese players like Ludovic Cassete or best Poland U19 player Toni Le Hoang have come to try their luck with Vietnam football. All they have to do is to contact VFF, express their wish and wait until VFF can hold a perfunctory presentation to the national team. It's always the NATIONAL TEAM regardless of whether they are good enough or not. All players coming through this way were surplus to requirements or had too little time to show themselves.

Toni Le Hoang came to Vietnam under enormous expectation and was shocked enough to retire at 19!

In my opinion, VFF was too passive and irresponsible in this matter. There are some good overseas Vietnamese players who surely will get a warm welcome by Vietnamese fans but VFF has done nothing to attract them to contribute to Vietnam football. All they do is waiting for some overseas emails and keep waiting. VFF need to be more active on this. For instance, VFF should send scouts to judge ability of players right at where they are playing football before convincing them to play for Vietnam NT or Vietnam youth squad. It would be much better than giving a brief trial to some unemployed amateurs with the national team. (More about overseas Vietnames players here)

Irfan Bachdim and Sergio van Dijk

Not only in Vietnam, some other Southeast Asia countries also have good overseas players like Titus James (Malaysia), Peter Lang (Thailand) or Sergio van Dijk, Irfan Bachdim (Indonesia) but most of them (except Peter Lang) are somehow ignored by their FAs.

Lee Nguyen at PSV Eindhoven

Lee Nguyen, best overseas Vietnamese player so far, is cap-tied to USA and although he had little chance to be selected in USA squad, he is no longer available for Vietnam NT. Another case is young striker Emil Le Giang. If he keeps improving and VFF keeps doing nothing, he will be soon called up to Slovakia national team. Then nothing more to talk about.