Vietnam National Team to face Xuân Son's all-foreign star lineup

The Steel Blue Nam Định Club may field a full squad of foreign players to compete against the Vietnam National Team.

As previously reported, although the Vietnam National Team will not play international friendlies during the September FIFA Days, they still have a training camp scheduled. Coach Kim Sang Sik’s squad will hold two internal practice matches against two top V-League clubs, Steel Blue Nam Định and CAHN, on September 4th and 7th.

These two Vietnamese teams are participating in two international tournaments, the ASEAN Club Championship and the Asian C2 Cup, thus boasting a very strong contingent of foreign players. In fact, Nam Định Club can almost field an entire starting eleven composed of foreign players for the friendly match against the Vietnam National Team.

Recently, Nam Định Club has continuously signed quality new players to compete in the two international tournaments. The latest addition is defender Mitchell Clement Dijks, a former Ajax star and once a pupil of Coach Erik ten Hag. He is the tenth foreign player at Nam Định alongside Caio Cesar, Kyle Hudlin, Lucas Araujo, Brenner, Romulo, Njabulo Blom, Mahmoud Eid, Percy Tau, and goalkeeper Caique.

Moreover, even though Walber Mota is not registered, he is still training with Nam Định, and the Vietnamese overseas player Kelvin Phạm Ba (without citizenship yet) is also with the team. Therefore, Thành Nam Club can fully field 11 "Western" players to face the Vietnam National Team. This means the "Golden Dragon" will essentially be competing against an international-level team.

Earlier in October 2024, the Vietnam National Team also held an internal practice match against Nam Định Club. At that time, Xuân Son had completed naturalization and was still playing for Thành Nam. Ultimately, the Vietnam National Team won 3-2 over Nam Định Club. However, in the first half, when Nam Định fielded all foreign players, they led the National Team 2-1.

However, it is highly likely that in the two friendly matches against CAHN and Steel Blue Nam Định, Coach Kim Sang Sik will delegate another assistant to lead and act as head coach. The reason is that the Korean strategist will prioritize the Vietnam U23 team and the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers.