In the list of 28 players proposed by head coach Roland Cristiano, there is a notable "strange bird" named Maxwell James Peereboom, who is playing in Australia.
Maxwell James Peereboom was born in 2008 in Ho Chi Minh City, has Vietnamese nationality and currently lives with his parents in Australia. Maxwell began his football career in local youth teams in Queensland, Australia before joining the Gold Coast Knights youth team, one of the top clubs in the National Premier Leagues Queensland (Queensland's highest league and part of the Australian national championship).
This 1m84 tall player plays in the center back position, is considered to have good ball control ability and creativity in playing style. However, because he is a young player, information about Maxwell is still limited.
That is also the reason why coach Roland Cristiano wants to directly test and evaluate this player's ability in the upcoming training session, before making a decision on the force of the Vietnam U17 team to participate in the 2025 U17 Asian qualifiers.
Besides the notable presence of Maxwell James Peereboom, coach Roland Cristiano also gave opportunities to some new players such as goalkeeper Phan Dinh Bach of PVF, midfielder Nguyen Le Quang Khoi of Ba Ria Vung Tau and midfielder Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc of Hanoi.
The remaining players are all names that attended the recent training session as well as participated in the international football tournament Peace Cup 2024, which took place from August 16 to August 20 in China.
In this tournament, despite a bad start when losing 0-4 to host China, the U16 Vietnam team had an impressive performance in both remaining matches, winning 3-0 against U16 Uzbekistan and 1-0 against U16 Japan, thereby winning the runner-up position.
According to the plan, the Vietnam U17 team will train at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center from September 16 to September 29, then go to Japan for training and competition from September 30 to October 9. On October 10, coach Roland Cristiano and his team will return home to complete the final preparations before participating in the 2025 AFC U17 qualifiers.
In order to create more favorable conditions for the Vietnam U17 team to compete for a ticket to the final round of the continental arena and gain the trust of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has decided to host the U17 team's group in the 2025 AFC U17 qualifiers.
The Vietnam U17 team will play host to Group I, taking place at Viet Tri Stadium, Phu Tho from October 23 to 27. Coach Roland Cristiano and his team will welcome U17 Kyrgyzstan (October 23), U17 Myanmar (October 25) and U17 Yemen (October 27).
