Looking for overseas Vietnamese players for Vietnamese women's football

On July 4, the Vietnam U20 women's team continued their training session at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center ( Hanoi ), preparing for the 2026 Asian U20 Women's Qualifiers. The training session featured the appearance of young striker Linda Pham - a Vietnamese-American player born in 2006 - who had just joined the team and entered her first training session with the Vietnam U20 women's team, after being given the opportunity by VFF and coach Okiyama Masahiko to "test" her abilities to prove her abilities.

VFF said that Linda Pham is a Vietnamese citizen, born and raised in the Netherlands by a family with both Vietnamese parents. Linda Pham is 1.68m tall, started playing football at the age of 6, and is currently playing for a club in the Netherlands as an attacking midfielder and striker.

vff.jpg -0 — Player Linda Pham tries her hand at the Vietnam U20 Women's Team. Photo: VFF

“We are gradually perfecting our personnel and tactics for the qualifying round. The players are very determined, especially with important matches ahead against Kyrgyzstan, Singapore and Hong Kong (China). Having new faces like Linda Pham will help the team have more options and resilience,” said Coach Okiyama Masahiko.

The recent appearance of overseas Vietnamese players in women’s football teams is a positive sign. This helps coaches have more personnel options. However, not all players meet the professional requirements.

Recently, when the Vietnamese women's football team finalized the list of players participating in the 2026 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers, overseas Vietnamese midfielder Nguyen Hoang Nam Mi was eliminated.

Explaining this, coach Mai Duc Chung said: “I really hope that overseas Vietnamese players will come back to contribute to the Vietnam women's team. We are very happy that Nam Mi is training with the team, but due to professional issues, this tournament cannot be named. In this training session, the Vietnam women's team also has the services of a number of young players such as Minh Chuyen, Nguyen Thi Hoa or Thu Em.”

While in the national men's football team, we have had successful naturalized players and overseas Vietnamese players, the women's football team is still in the process of searching for additional factors in the coming time.

At the club level, Ho Chi Minh City is a team that has quickly found players to compete in continental tournaments. In March 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City women's team registered two overseas Vietnamese players, Ashley Tram Anh and Chelsea Le, to participate in the 2024-2025 AFC Champions League and the 2025 National Women's Cup. In fact, after the Vietnamese women's team participated in the 2023 World Cup, VFF leaders also quickly realized the need to expand the search for naturalized players. This helps strengthen the team.

The VFF President said: "It can be said that this is an international trend that many national teams have applied. Vietnamese football is also researching, ensuring a balance between domestic training and attracting talent from abroad, especially players with Vietnamese blood.

VFF has opened opportunities for all professional, non-professional and youth football systems to attract players of Vietnamese origin. If overseas Vietnamese players or players of Vietnamese origin want to contribute to the Vietnam national team, they can return to compete in domestic tournaments, thereby gradually adapting to the culture as well as meeting other conditions.

In men's football, some overseas Vietnamese players have returned to the country to compete in the V.League. VFF always tries to promote players who wish to play for the Vietnam national team, on the condition that they are selected by the head coach, based on criteria such as meeting professional requirements, adapting to culture, procedures and especially the desire to contribute to the country and Vietnamese football."

With the recent successes of the Vietnamese women's team, it is hoped that more overseas Vietnamese players will appear.

Hanoi Police in difficult group in Southeast Asia tournament
Draw results for the 2025-2026 AFF Club Championship.
On the afternoon of July 4 in Bangkok (Thailand), the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) held a draw for the 2025-2026 ASEAN Club Championship, with two representatives from Vietnamese football, Nam Dinh Steel Blue and Hanoi Police. According to the draw results, Hanoi Police are in Group A, along with Buriram United and BG Pathum United (Thailand), Selangor FC (Malaysia), Tampines Rovers (Singapore), and the winner of the play-off match between Kasuka FC (Cambodia) and Dynamic Herb Cebu FC (Philippines).
Meanwhile, Nam Dinh Blue Steel is in Group B with opponents Bangkok United (Thailand), Johor Darul Tazim (Malaysia), Lion City Sailors (Singapore), Svay Rieng (Cambodia) and the winner of the play-off match between Ezra FC (Laos) and Shan United (Myanmar).
The play-off stage is scheduled to take place on August 8, 2025. The group stage will be played in a round-robin format from August 2025 to February 2026, with each team playing three home and three away matches. The top four teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals will take place on February 26 and 27, 2026, followed by the semi-finals on May 6 and 13, 2026, in a two-legged knockout format. The two finals will be played in a home-away format, scheduled for May 20 and 27, 2026. The 2025-2026 AFF Club Championship will expand from 12 to 14 teams, increasing the total number of matches from 42 to 54.
The two Vietnamese representatives participating in the tournament also received high praise for their strength and were expected to become two candidates in the race for the championship. In another development, Indonesia did not participate in the tournament due to disagreements between the AFF and the Indonesian National Championship Organizing Committee (LIB) on selecting participating teams. The AFF requested to send the champion and runner-up of Liga 1, but LIB nominated the 3rd and 4th ranked teams so that the strong teams could focus on the Asian playground. Due to the AFF's disapproval, Indonesia decided to withdraw, leaving only 14 participating teams. ( HH )