HA NOI — Fifty of the best footballers nationwide have been chosen via the Football Dreams programme in HCM City-based Thanh Long Sports Centre.
The event's organising board will next announce the three best players of this 50 to join their peers from other countries in a month-long training course in Qatar. However, this year, the fourth, they will keep the players a secret. The official list will not be announced until next January, after Aspire Academy's coaches finish their recruitment in 16 countries. This is in order to compare the football skills of players among countries.
The programme began in April and will conclude in August, taking place in 60 stadiums of 43 cities and provinces across the country. It attracted around 60,000 boys aged between 13-15.
The qualifying round was held from April 20 to May 20 to select 175 outstanding players. Experts from the Aspire Academy chose 50 out of the 175 players for this upcoming national final round, slated for HCM City on August 6-7.
Last year, the programme attracted 20,000 young footballers from 25 cities and provinces. The winners were Le Van Chung, Cao Thanh Hoe of the central city of Da Nang and Nguyen Viet Thang of the Mekong Delta province of Long An.
Football Dreams, a recruiting project that develops young football talents, is in its fourth year in Viet Nam, organised by the Qatar Aspire Academy and the Viet Nam Football Federation.
The unique scouting project is aimed at identifying the future talent of world football. Since its 2007 launch, Aspire's Football Dreams project has tested over 700,000 young footballers from Asia, South America and Africa.— VNS
