Futsal

World Cup champion manager Diego Raul Giustozzi will take charge of the Việt Nam national futsal team. Photo UEFA.com

HÀ NỘI — World Cup champion coach Diego Raul Giustozzi will take charge of the Việt Nam national futsal team and is expected to lift the team up at the coming AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2022 in Kuwait.

Việt Nam's first time competing in the World Cup was in 2016 in Colombia where they finished in the quarter-finals.

At the same tournament Giustozzi, 44, guided Argentina to the top podium for the first time, beating Russia 5-4 in the final.

Earlier, the former Argentinian national player competed in Spain for many years before moving to be a coach in 2013.

He also led Argentina to take a silver at the South American Games in 2014 and the third Continental Cup in same year.

At club level, Giustozzi managed Spanish ElPozo Murcia FC since 2018 and grabbed second place of the Futsal UEFA Champions League 2019-20.

The Argentine manager whose contract's details are not revealed, on August 1 called up 23 players for the first training camp in HCM City.

Most are veteran players with experience in various international tournaments in recent years such as goalkeeper Hồ Văn Ý, fixo Trần Văn Vũ, ala Lê Quốc Nam, and pivo Nguyễn Minh Trí.

Young faces such as Nguyễn Văn Hiếu and Châu Đoàn Phát and fixo Nhan Gia Hưng are also called up this time.

After five weeks of training, they will leave for Thailand for an invitational tournament on September 8-19 where they will play Iran, Morocco, Finland, Angola and the hosts.

They will compete in the Kuwait competition from September 25-October 20.

Việt Nam are in the same group as South Korea, Saudi Arabia and defending champions Japan.

Giustozzi is expected to help Việt Nam gain a good result and qualify for the Futsal World Cup 2024. VNS