Mr. Kim pushes to 'transplant' the U.23 Vietnam generation to the Vietnam national team

The four tournaments directly led by coach Kim Sang-sik to the Vietnam U.23 team will be a suitable roadmap for this potential young generation to gradually be transferred to the Vietnam national team with the possible goal of the 2026 AFF Cup.

Coach Kim Sang-sik will give more opportunities to U.23 Vietnam's mainstays like Dinh Bac.

Photo: Minh Tu

Mr. Kim invests in U.23 Vietnam

Arriving in Vietnam from the beginning of May 20224, Coach Kim Sang-sik spent time with the Vietnamese team, then won the AFF Cup 2024, followed by the Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers. It can be said that in the first year of his coaching, Mr. Kim mainly focused on reviving the Vietnamese team and handed over the U.23 Vietnam team to his assistant.

It was not until June 2025 that the Korean coach first worked directly with the U.23 Vietnam team during a training session at Ba Ria Stadium (Ba Ria Ward, Ho Chi Minh City), preparing for the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament in Indonesia, where we won the championship.

In 2025, the focus of Coach Kim Sang-sik's attention will be on the Vietnam U.23 team with 4 important goals including the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23, the Asian U.23 qualifiers (which have successfully completed their mission) and the upcoming 33rd SEA Games taking place in December 2025 in Thailand and the Asian U.23 Finals in January 2026 in Saudi Arabia.

Vietnam U.23 team completes goal of participating in 2026 AFC U.23 Championship Finals

Photo: Minh Tu

In the further future, the U.23 Vietnam players will have another continental tournament to test their strength at, the 2026 ASIAD in Japan (September 2026), with the goal of reaching the semi-finals in 2018 for Coach Park Hang-seo and his team.

Between these matches of the U.23 juniors, Mr. Kim will have a quick working period when the Vietnam team plays 2 matches with Nepal in October 2025 and Malaysia, Laos (March 2026) in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Looking at the very small chance of winning a ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup (must beat Malaysia at least 4-0 or more), the focus of the Korean coach will be to promote maturity to gradually cultivate the current U.23 Vietnam generation to renew the Vietnam team with many pillars that are on the verge of reaching the threshold.

Open a new cycle

Hieu Minh played solidly to help the U.23 Vietnam defense keep a clean sheet after 3 matches.

Photo: Minh Tu

At the end of 2017, Coach Park Hang-seo arrived when Vietnamese football was in despair after the failure at the 29th SEA Games in Malaysia, and then the miracle of Changzhou with the runner-up position at the U.23 Asian Championship in early 2018 changed everything.

The U.23 Vietnam generation of Quang Hai, Cong Phuong, Dinh Trong, Tien Dung, Duy Manh, Van Thanh, Xuan Truong, Hong Duy, Duc Huy, Van Toan... awakened the fire of belief and expectation for the whole country, then became the framework to help the Vietnamese team win the AFF Cup 2018, reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup 2019.

After nearly 10 years, Cong Phuong, Dinh Trong, Xuan Truong or Duc Huy... are no longer called up to the Vietnamese national team while Duy Manh, Van Thanh, Hong Duy, Tien Dung, Van Toan... are starting to feel the burden of age more clearly after many major and minor injuries.

Mr. Kim is working hard to properly renew the Vietnamese team.

Photo: Minh Tu

The training session at the FIFA Days last September when there were no international friendly matches and the Vietnam U.23 team played in the 2026 AFC U.23 qualifiers was a golden opportunity for new players over 23 years old in the V-League to show themselves.

Unfortunately, despite making up more than half of the called-up squad, the mark of new recruits like Gia Hung, Van Toi, Hoang Anh, Du Hoc… is still quite faint even though interim coach Dinh Hong Vinh has given them a lot of playing time.

On the contrary, the clear maturity of the U.23 Vietnam team after their solid, tenacious and brave performance in the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament and the U.23 Asian qualifiers further confirms a clearer roadmap for them to participate more deeply and practice taking on more responsibilities in the Vietnam national team.

Vietnam team not satisfied after winning AFF Cup 2024

Photo: Minh Tu

In fact, over the past few years since Coach Troussier's time and now under Mr. Kim, there are quite a few faces in the U.23 Vietnam team who regularly "eat national team food" in the first team such as Van Khang, Dinh Bac, Trung Kien, Ly Duc, Van Truong, Thanh Nhan... or Vi Hao himself is recovering from injury.

Ahead of the U.23 Vietnam team, there will be a series of important fronts. Coach Kim Sang-sik will open more slots for the rapidly improving U.23 Vietnam players such as Hieu Minh, Le Viktor, Ngoc My, Van Thuan... to join the Vietnam team.

That will be a valuable opportunity for them to learn and mature much faster thanks to training with experienced seniors in the Vietnam team, especially when the opponent in the next 2 matches in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers is only Nepal, 63 places lower than us in the world rankings (176 compared to 113 of Vietnam).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ong-kim-day-manh-cay-lua-u23-viet-nam-len-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-185250911120834464.htm