After 1 month of returning home, overseas Vietnamese player Tran Thanh Trung was called up to the Vietnam U23 team.

On the afternoon of August 25, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) announced the official list of 24 U23 Vietnam players for the September training session.

Overseas Vietnamese player Tran Thanh Trung is the only new recruit of Vietnam U23. He was born in 2005 in Bulgaria and holds dual Vietnamese and Bulgarian citizenship.

Thanh Trung grew up at CSKA Sofia's training center, had a starting position in the Slavia Sofia first team in the Bulgarian National Championship and was just in the top 3 Best Young Players of Bulgaria in the 2024 - 2025 season, before returning to Vietnam in July.

With a height of 1.75m, a defensive midfielder, Thanh Trung quickly asserted his ability when joining Ninh Binh Club. He was given the opportunity to play in 2 consecutive matches in the first 2 rounds of V-League 2025 - 2026 and contributed to helping the team win both matches.

The remaining 23 faces of U23 Vietnam are the group of players who just won the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship, with familiar names such as Tran Trung Kien, Nguyen Hieu Minh, Nguyen Xuan Bac, Viktor Le and Nguyen Dinh Bac.

In addition, the team also welcomed the return of striker Nguyen Thanh Nhan after he recovered from injury. The reason U23 Vietnam kept the same main frame is to create stability in the squad and playing style, aiming for SEA Games 33.

According to the plan, U23 Vietnam will gather and practice in Viet Tri ( Phu Tho ) from August 30. In Group C of the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team will meet U23 Bangladesh (September 3), U23 Singapore (September 6) and U23 Yemen (September 9).