On the afternoon of September 2, Coach Kim Sang Sik officially announced the removal of Tran Thanh Trung's name to reduce the list of U23 Vietnam players competing in the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers to 23 players. He announced this decision to the whole team during a training session on the Viet Tri auxiliary field.

Trần Thành Trung vẫn vui vẻ dù bị loại khỏi U23 Việt Nam - Ảnh 2.

Although his name was removed from the list of players for the next three matches in Group C of the qualifying round against Bangladesh, Singapore and Yemen, Tran Thanh Trung (right) still stayed with U23 Vietnam and smiled with his teammates during the training session.

Thanh Trung has been training with U23 Vietnam since August 30. Although he has only practiced a few sessions, he has shown his ability to get along and bond with the domestic players.

Trần Thành Trung vẫn vui vẻ dù bị loại khỏi U23 Việt Nam - Ảnh 4.

Overseas Vietnamese player Tran Thanh Trung, born in 2005 in Bulgaria, is considered to have strong development potential. At the age of 20, he already had a starting position in the Bulgarian National Championship. After returning to Vietnam for only 1 month, Thanh Trung was immediately given the opportunity by Ninh Binh to play in 2 matches in the first 3 rounds of V-League 2025 - 2026.

Coach Kim Sang Sik only kept Vietnamese-American player Viktor Le (middle), considering Tran Thanh Trung as a "reserve" for future campaigns at U23 Vietnam.

In the training session before the opening match of Group C qualifying round against U23 Bangladesh, U23 Vietnam had good force, no one was injured.

Due to the focus on stability, Coach Kim kept most of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 champion squad to compete in this qualifying round.

With high confidence and determination, U23 Vietnam aims to pass the qualifying round to attend the U23 Asian finals next year.

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