Nguyen Thanh Khoi of Hoang Anh Gia Lai U19 team (Photo: baogialai.com.vn)

Khoi joined the Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) - JMG football academy in 2013 when he was 12. He was the captain of the HAGL U19 squad competing at the 2019 National U19 Football Championship and a member of Vietnam’s U18 team.

A total of 21 players from U18 teams of 11 Southeast Asian nations will join in ASIAN ELEVEN led by Japanese head coach Takuma Koga.

The international friendly football match JapaFunCup will take place on June 22 in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture.

The JapaFunCup will be co-organised by the Japan Foundation Asia Centre and the Japan Football Association. It is part of the "Asia in Resonance 2019", a series of events introducing its various cultural exchange programmes between Japan and Southeast Asia.

Started in 2014, the football exchange project ASIAN ELEVEN aims to foster talents in Japan and Southeast Asia, promoting mutual understanding between the countries through football.

The project has sent 166 Japanese coaches to Southeast Asia to train more than 3,000 young footballers in the region. VNA