The Saigon Sports Academy (SSA) will select and train athletes for the first ever international professional basketball team, the SSA Saigon Heat team, to join the upcoming third season of the AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League (AirAsia ABL) starting from January 14th, 2012, according to an official of the Academy.

The AirAsia ABL is one of the leading international basketball tournaments in the region with the participation of 8 teams from Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Besides, the SSA will also fund US$ 10,000 to the HCMC basketball team to represent Vietnam at the 26th SEA Games in Indonesia at the end of this year.

The SSA was established in January, 2009 in HCMC, targeting to be the Southeast Asia’s leading sporting centre and to train Vietnamese athletes to enhance the national sporting position in the international arena. At present, the Academy is training more than 900 athletes in football, tennis, basketball, swimming and chess.

Source: TPO

Translated by Van Hieu