Gustave Bebbe for AFC Cup campaign

SLNA has added Cameroonian striker Gustave Bebbe. who has played many seasons in the highest competition of Turkey, to their squad. Bebbe. now 29, is capped 3 times with Cameroon national team. He also holds Turkish citizenship.

HAGL 1-3 Ha Noi FC

The first game of Vietbank Cup was an impressive victory for the newly-founded club Ha Noi FC. A brace from Timothy Anjembe and one goal from Aluspah Brewah helped the visitors lead 3-0 before Van Long pulled one back for the hosts.

Navibank Cup 2011 Fixtures

Vietbank Cup 2011 Fixtures

Vu Nhu Thanh joins Ha Noi FC

Vietnam international Vu Nhu Thanh has decided to sign for Ha Noi FC after leaving Ninh Binh. He has won V-League twice with Binh Duong and was a member of Vietnam national team winning AFF Cup 2008. Now 30, he's still one of best Vietnamese centre backs.

Vietbank Cup 2011

One more pre-season tournament. Vietbank Cup 2011, which lasts from November 30 to December 10 in Pleiku, will feature 7 clubs HAGL, Hanoi FC, Thanh Hoa, SLNA, Ninh Binh, Khanh Hoa and DT Long An.

Ninh Binh sign Ghana international

The club official has confirmed the signing of midfielder Ibrahim Abdul Razak, who had played 3 seasons with Empoli. He has 24 caps with Ghana national team and was a member of Ghana Olympic team in 2004 Olympic. The 28-year-old last played for Israeli side Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

Navibank Cup 2011

Navibank Cup 2011,  held in Ho Chi Minh City from December 2 to 10, will draw 5 clubs including Navibank Saigon, Binh Duong, Hanoi T&T, Chonburi (Thailand) and Geylang Utd (Singapore) in a round-robin tournament. The pre-season competition will be an important test for Vietnamese clubs before V-League 2012 kicks off in late December.

Footballers of Vietnamese origin to be considered non-foreign

Overseas football players of Vietnamese descent will be able to play in Vietnam as non-foreign without acquiring Vietnamese citizenship. This is one of new rules that will come into effect from next season. The current rule allows each club to have only 4 foreigners.

Several overseas Vietnamese players have come back to their homeland. The list includes Ludovic Cassette (France), Dang Van Robert (Czech Republic), Lee Nguyen (USA), Dang Van Lam (Russia) and Johnny Nguyen (France). Young striker Emil Le Giang from Slovakia is expected to arrive in Vietnam soon.

Former Germany U21 international trialing in Vietnam

Photo: reviersport.de

According to a German source, Christian Mikolajczak who was a prospect at Schalke 04 and a member of Germany U21 is now on trial with an unknown club in Vietnam. The 30-year-old had played for many clubs in German lower divisions before coming to Vietnam.

Another failure

There's no pity when Vietnam was knocked out in the semi-final after losing to Indonesia. The hosts were simply better while Vietnam played terribly.

I read it on a forum. Someone blamed the lack of young Vietnamese talents on the appearance of too many foreign players in local competitions and we should learn from Malaysia to ban all foreigners. Is it the case?

England and Germany are two nations that have the highest rate of foreign players playing in their competitions in Europe, much higher than Vietnam. While Germany currently enjoy the blossom of young talents, England are suffering the lack. It is the quality of youth training and recruitment that determines the success. Malaysia now has a good generation of players. It's the result of their investment in youth a few years ago. A whole team of young players were sent to Slovakia to play for a year. They now intend to send another young team to play in Singapore.

Look at us. We pay a bunch of money to buy not-that-good players but don't invest anything on young players. We organised a lot of short international friendly tournaments in the hope of improving young players. Which kind of young players improve through some friendlies? Frankly, the federation just did it in the sake of tickets revenue. We built a big training center in Hanoi in 2003 but it has never been used to train players. It was hired to hold amateur matches, for money.

Honestly, I don't see a bright future for Vietnamese football until a big big change. Can it be the imminent birth of Vietnam Professional Football company?

Vietnam to meet hosts in semi-final

After beating Laos 3-1 in the last game of group stage, Vietnam will face Indonesia in the semi-final. The hosts were unable to secure the top position of group A as they lost 0-1 to Malaysia, who will enter the second semi-final against Myanmar.

Vietnam will play Indonesia without defender Long Giang due to suspension and striker Hoang Dinh Tung, who was injured in last game. Two semi-finals will be played on November 19th.

Highlights: Vietnam U23 8-0 Brunei U23

Highlights: Vietnam U23 2-0 East Timor U23

Highlights: Vietnam U23 0-0 Myanmar U23

Khanh Hoa sign Majabvi

There has not been much news on Khatoco Khanh Hoa lately. This time, luckily, I caught a report that the club has signed an international from Zimbabwe. His name is Justice Majabvi who played in Austria before coming to Vietnam. He has 27 caps with Zimbabwe national team.

Dong Bortey joins SLNA on loan

Photo: ghanasoccernet.com

According to footyghana.com sources, Dong Bortey, who is already in Vietnam, will soon sign a loan deal beginning 1st November 2011 to 31st August 2012, and former champions Aduana Stars are expected to receive an amount in the region of $30,000 for the loan deal.

Bortey has been capped 6 times with Ghana national team.

Highlights: Vietnam U23 3-1 Philippines U23

Agu Casmir move to Vietnam?

Photo: affsuzukicup.com

Singapore international Agu Casmir joined Johnny Nguyen and some Jamaican players to participate in a training session of Hanoi FC yesterday. He is a well-known name in the region as the Nigerian-born striker is a familiar face of Singapore national team. His last club was Persija Jakarta of Indonesia Super League, where he scored 9 goals in 21 games.

Johnny Nguyen impress coach

Johnny Nguyen, whom I managed to had an interview with in March, is getting closer to secure a deal in Vietnam. He's now a trialist at Ha Noi FC (merged club of Ha Noi ACB and Hoa Phat Ha Noi) after his contract at Ligue 2 side Stade de Reims expired. Nguyen Thanh Vinh, head coach of the club, was quite pleased with what he saw and rated him better than any Vietnamese centre midfielder at this time.

Ha Noi FC has recently signed Vietnam international Le Cong Vinh on free transfer.