Adriano Schmidt and 4 overseas Vietnamese players made their debut for Vietnam national team

1. Mac Hong Quan

Hong Quan is a player whose parents are Vietnamese. When he was 8 years old, he moved with his family to the Czech Republic to settle down and then started playing football here. Later, a former student of Sparta Praha decided to return to Vietnam to look for opportunities.

The first impression of Mac Hong Quan in the early years of returning to Vietnam was his impressive performance in the 2013 Asian U22 qualifying round. In that year’s tournament, he was arranged to play in the role of a midfielder. attack and also scored 3 goals. After that, he continued to shine at ASIAD 2014 in the Vietnamese Olympic shirt, and then joined U23 Vietnam to attend the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.

His outstanding performance in the colors of the youth teams helped Mac Hong Quan become a Vietnamese national team player in the 2014-2015 period. However, it was not until 2017, when Mai Duc Chung was an interim coach, that he was able to return to the red shirt. During the gathering that year, the midfielder born in 1992 played 2 matches against Cambodia in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers and scored 1 goal.

Under coach Park Hang-seo, Mac Hong Quan was also called up once in September 2019, but was later eliminated. At that time, he was rated as the top central midfielder in V.League thanks to his comprehensiveness in both defensive and offensive fronts.

2. Michael Nguyen

Like Mac Hong Quan, Michal Nguyen also returned to Vietnam to look for opportunities in 2013. At that time, after performing well in two friendly matches with Hanoi Club, he was immediately filled by coach Hoang Van Phuc. 2015 Asian Cup qualifying list

However, only 6 minutes in the debut match of Vietnam Tel in the confrontation with the UAE, Michal Nguyen made a mistake and caused the home team to receive a penalty. In this match, Vietnam Tel lost 1-2. A month later, the 1989 midfielder continued to be ranked as the main kick in a 0-1 loss against Hong Kong. These are also the only two matches of Michal Nguyen in the red shirt so far.

3. Dang Van Robert

In September 2015, Dang Van Robert was additionally summoned to Vietnam to prepare for two matches in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. He was the replacement name for Van Bien, the player who asked to withdraw from the team for reasons by family.

At that time, Dang Van Robert could not hide his happiness. After 7 years of playing football in Vietnam, the efforts of the Slovakian player have also paid off.

“Before, I never thought that I would return to Vietnam to play football and then be called up to the national team. But now, it’s the truth. So, if I’m on the bench, I’m happy too.”

Unfortunately for Robert, he was not used by coach Toshiya Miura in the two matches that year. It was also the only time he concentrated on the Vietnamese team during his career.

4. Dang Van Lam

Dang Van Lam is considered the most successful Viet Kieu player in Vietnam. However, to get to this day, the Vietnamese-Russian goalkeeper also had to go through a long and arduous journey.

In 2015, on his Facebook page, Van Lam expressed his desire to contribute to the U23 Vietnam national team. By 2016, the dream of wearing a shirt Golden Star Warriors of Van Lam also became a reality, when he was summoned by coach Nguyen Huu Thang.

Van Lam’s career has since continued to advance. At the 2018 AFF Cup, he was trusted by Coach Park Hang-seo and was one of the key factors in the red shirt team’s journey to the Southeast Asian championship.

Later, Van Lam continued to attend the Asian Cup and the matches in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. He returned to the main team for Vietnam in a friendly match against Afghanistan in June 2022, after a long period of convalescence. .

5. Adriano Schmidt

Adriano Schmidt is one of six players mentioned by VFF in the article “The national team is ready to welcome overseas Vietnamese players who have real talent and desire to contribute”, published in May 2019. The German-Vietnamese central defender mainly played in the lower divisions in Germany, before going to Vietnam and joining Hai Phong in 2017.

Compared to the common ground of central defenders in the V.League, Schmidt possesses the ideal height (1m85). He also showed his ability in the shirt of the Port city team. At that time, he was also rumored to be on the Vietnamese team many times, but it was not until 2022 that his dream of wearing a red shirt came true.

In a friendly match against Afghanistan in June 2022, he was placed in the starting stone and immediately left his mark with an assist with his head, allowing Tuan Hai to score the opening goal.