More than 3,860 children from around the country have taken part in selection for the Toyota Junior Football Programme 2018, with hopes of becoming the country’s next football stars.— Photo nghenhinvietnam

HÀ NỘI — More than 3,860 children from around the country have taken part in selection for the Toyota Junior Football Programme 2018, with hopes of becoming the country’s next football stars.

The programme covered three selection rounds in Hồ Chí Minh City, Đà Nẵng, Gia Lai and Hà Nội.

In the second round 106 qualified players will join six-a-side group matches to show off their individual technique and logical thinking.

Finally, 36 players will be selected for another six-a-side match. In this round, players have to demonstrate strong abilities in teamwork, aggression and intelligence to solve problems on the pitch.

“I’m very satisfied with this year’s contestants as they have been trained carefully by the local centre. I also have a good feeling about the Vietnamese football movement because summer football camps like this will help find many more talented football players in the future,” coach  Lê Huỳnh Đức said about the quality of this year’s programme.

After the four selection rounds, 30 of the top football talents will advance to the training camp at Tôn Đức Thắng University in Hồ Chí Minh City from July 10 to 16.

Finally, the best 18 players selected from the training camp will play a friendly match in Japan and join the Toyota international football league with Toyota teenage football teams from Japan and Thailand from September 13 to 20.

The Toyota Junior Football Programme has been annually organised by Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) since 2015, for young football talents aged between 9 and 12, in Viet Nam.

2018 also marks 45 years in the relationship between Viet Nam and Japan. Besides annual activities, TMV has been making efforts to become “a good citizen in the local community” through many social activities, focusing on traffic safety, education and training, environmental protection and culture. — VNS