During the training period to prepare for the 2025 AFC U17 Championship Finals, the list of U17 Vietnam teams highlighted is overseas Vietnamese player Thomas Mai Veeren - who played for the Netherlands' youth teams. After Dang Van Lam, Nguyen Filip, Patrik Le Giang, Adou Minh or Jason Quang Vinh, especially the "Xuan Son effect", Vietnamese football has had a more open view of naturalized players (both foreign players and overseas Vietnamese).
Currently, coach Cristiano Roland is still in the process of directly assessing and it is not known whether he is on the official list or not, however, this player with the Vietnamese name Mai Cong Thanh should be viewed and accepted from a more positive perspective as a threat to someone's ability to take the position.
It is clear that it is not easy for Mai Veeren to appear in the Dutch youth teams since 2018. In addition to physical strength, versatility, modern thinking, and style and discipline formed in a professional environment, many domestic players, especially young players, need to learn and practice. There have been many cases where talented young Vietnamese players have gone astray due to lack of discipline and meticulousness in daily activities and training.
Speaking of talent, another problem in Vietnamese football is the coaching method that leads to not being able to maximize. According to former coach Arsene Wenger, many places are trained according to a reverse process - movement, the ability to make decisions only comes to awareness. While it was necessary to do the opposite, to let players know the environmental awareness (cenas, situations in the match), then make a decision to perform the move.
Currently, Vietnamese football is almost still about "teaching" football - although each player's level is different, so the players compete in a "guarantee coach" style. Instead, from a young age, players should experience it themselves, give practical results from making decisions to understand how it affects their playing quality. And they will learn from their own experience, thereby playing football with a deeper awareness of the game, being smarter and still showing their personal mark in the collective play.
