Foreign experts from Arsenal football academy Saturday started their first recruitment in Vietnam in hopes of selecting prospects to train in a football facility in central Daklak province.
The recruitment for the pre-qualifiers will last till July and is organized in each province nationwide in hopes of selecting the 60 best to continue on, as only 16 will qualify and be recruited for a seven-year training program at the Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) – Arsenal Academy.
In the first day of selection in Daklak, four out of 50 boys met technical requirements from the experts Robert Procureur and Guillaume Graechen, who will continue their job in other provinces.
The four 11-year-old children are A Thuyn Mlo of Ede ethnic minority, Nguyen Van Lam, Doan Quoc Viet, and Nguyen Duc Thanh.
It is estimated that up to 20,000 boys from across the country will be tested in the pre-qualifiers.
The 16 finalists will benefit from the free training course, with the first session to start late this year, and the players’ parents will receive 10 percent of their transfer fees after graduation, according to HAGL.
They will live, learn football, and follow an academic curriculum at the academy – a joint venture between Vietnamese top-flight V-League club HAGL and the world-famous English club Arsenal.
The five-hectare school – with two stadiums, a building with 30 double rooms, and space for other facilities – costs US$4 million equally shared by the two partners.
Once the kids graduate at 19 years of age, the then well-trained footballers should be strong enough to cap the national team or be transferred to clubs elsewhere in the world, said Keith Edelman, the Gunners’ managing director.
“Vietnamese footballers that make it through the training there will be qualified to play for European clubs,” he said.
Source: Thanhnien