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Japanese football specialist aims for audacious Vietnam World Cup target
  • | NLD, dtinews.vn | January 21, 2013 05:36 PM
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Vietnam's potential future football supremo Kazuyoshi Tanabe has audaciously claimed that the Vietnamese football team could reach the World Cup in the next few years.

 

Japanese football specialist Kazuyoshi Tanabe

The Japanese football specialist made the highly optimistic comments at a press meeting on January 20 afternoon after watching the national U-16s play during a two-day visit to discuss his contract with the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF).

Tanabe was recently invited to act as Deputy Managing Director of VPF.

“I believe that Vietnamese players are easily capable of being as good as those in Thailand, if not better.  I decided to take this post as I wanted to challenge myself in a new environment. With its young and talented players, I believe that Vietnam could qualify for the World Cup in the next few years.”

He noted that his major tasks are to map out development plans for Vietnamese football in the next few years.

“Football teams should be named after their home area to nurture local pride and attract support. When a football team wins the confidence of their community, then they can attract investors,” he emphasised.

Vietnamese football would only develop through the joint efforts of the game’s administrators, football club owners and supporters.

"Even though I’ve yet to sign an official contract with the VPF, I want to work in Vietnam as soon as possible to turn this the potential into reality,” he added.

Several Vietnamese football fans have also expressed doubts over Tanabe’s ambitious target.

“Tanabe just saw players from the U-16 team, not the national squad. Vietnam won’t qualify for the World Cup in the next five years, even if it was helped by ten leading world football specialists,” Khanh, a football fan from HCM City’s District 6 gloomily commented.

Phu Dao, another fan, said the Japanese administrator had far too much confidence in Vietnamese players and that the game’s administrators were very different from Japan.

“Tanabe doesn’t understand our country or its football industry,” the fan noted.

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