What are Southeast Asian countries preparing for the 2026 AFC U23 qualifiers?

The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will take place from September 3, 2025. Southeast Asian football giants, including Thailand U23, Indonesia U23 and Malaysia U23, are making final preparations to qualify for the finals in Saudi Arabia.

Thai players practice hard for the U23 Asian qualifiers - Photo: Siamsport

U23 Thailand: Determination and new faces

The Thailand U23 team under the leadership of coach Thawatchai Damrong-Ongtrakul is actively training at the Yamaoka Hanasaka 1 Academy. During the training sessions, the Thai coach focuses on honing the attack and defense systems, especially finishing skills.

The team spirit is high, especially with the arrival of new faces. PT Prachuap FC striker Jehanafi Mama could not hide his excitement at being called up to the national team for the first time. He sees this as a great inspiration and hopes to motivate young people in rural areas.

"I am very happy and excited. I come from a rural area and I want to inspire young people to believe that we can do the same," Jehanafi told the media.

U23 Indonesia: "Reinforcements" from Europe

After winning the runner-up position of U23 Southeast Asia 2025, U23 Indonesia is urgently preparing for the qualifying campaign for U23 Asia 2026. With the home field advantage at Gelora Delta (Sidoarjo), coach Gerald Vanenburg's team has set a big goal in Group J, which includes U23 Korea, Laos and Macau.

Dion Markx with president Erick Thohir - Photo: Bola

To strengthen its strength, the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) is planning to add many quality naturalized players from Europe. According to the Indonesian newspaper Bola, 5 notable names that can be called up include: Dion Markx (center back from TOP Oss Club, Netherlands) and Tim Geypens (left back from FC Emmen Club, Netherlands). Currently, both have completed the naturalization procedure.

Next, they will also have the services of Mathew Baker (versatile defender from Melbourne City, Australia) and Welber Jardim (central midfielder of U20 São Paulo, Brazil), talented young players who have played for Indonesia's youth teams.

U23 Malaysia: Expecting strength from domestic players

What is special is that the list of players called up for the 2026 AFC U23 qualifiers of Malaysia this time only has two naturalized players, Gabriel Palmero and Fergus Tierney.

Notably, U23 Malaysia is one of the teams with the longest preparation process for the 2026 AFC U23 qualifiers. They gathered early, had many friendly matches and even went to Thailand two weeks early to get used to the field and weather.

However, despite careful investment, coach Nafuzi Zain and his team still have many worries.

In the recent series of friendly matches, U23 Malaysia lost both matches to U23 Kuwait with the same score of 0-1. Their only win was an 11-0 demolition of Thai third-tier team Nonthaburi United, a result that does not say much about their strength.

Domestic experts are not optimistic about Malaysia's chances of advancing (yellow shirt) - Photo: screenshot

These results extend a disappointing run of form from the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, where the Tigers were eliminated from the group stage and only managed a single victory against Brunei.

With the current situation, Malaysian experts are not very optimistic about the home team's chances of advancing. Being in Group F with hosts Thailand, Lebanon and Mongolia, U23 Malaysia will have to make great efforts to overcome the challenging qualifying round.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cac-nuoc-dong-nam-a-chuan-bi-gi-cho-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-2026-20250901102342861.htm