Door shut before French player to Vietnam's national soccer team
HANOI - Brazilian coach of Vietnam's national soccer team, Edson Tavares, has put out the burning desire of a French midfielder with Vietnamese roots to be listed with local players at the coming Tiger Cup 2004.
"Tavares refused to admit Ludovic Casset into the national squad, explaining that he does not really outperform local players,and that there is little time left for him to fully integrate into the team to attend Tiger Cup. We respect the coach's decision," an official of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) told Xinhua on Tuesday on condition of anonymity. The 25-year-old midfielder from French club AJ Auxerre, nephew of a late Vietnamese minister of culture and information, has actively participated in physical exercises and training and testing matches in Vietnam after arriving in Vietnam on October 31,the official said.
Ludovic scored the sole goal for the national squad in a draw game with a local club, but no goal in another, in which the squad lost to a different local club 2-1. He will leave Vietnam on Thursday. The VFF will not invite an US midfielder with Vietnamese roots named Viet Nguyen to Vietnam this week to undergo professional tests to qualify for membership at the national squad as planned, said the official.
The official explained that Tiger Cup 2004, the biennial soccer tournament for Southeast Asian countries to be held in Vietnam and Malaysia late this year and early next year, is drawing nearer. "The Asian Football Confederation urged us to submit a preliminary list of 30 players who will attend Tiger Cup. We've already missed the deadline which fell on November 6," the official noted, adding that both the VFF and Tavares strongly believe the team will be in top three.
Over the past four years, the VFF has received information of some 800 foreign players with Vietnamese roots, most of them play in foreign semi professional clubs or second-class ones. Vietnam will grant Vietnamese citizenship to qualified foreign players without asking them to renounce their nationality, the official added.
Xinhuanet - November 9, 2004
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