Former Viet Nam football team coach Alfred Riedl has agreed to coach Laos’s U-23 team ahead of the Southeast Asian Games this December.
The 60-year-old Austrian coach, who was sacked by V-League Hai Phong Cement in March after just three games, signed a seven-month contract with Football Federation of Laos in HCM City on Saturday.
The coach’s salary will be paid by the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, who own V-League team Hoang Anh Gia Lai, a source from Hoang Anh Gia Lai said yesterday.
Last year, the group agreed to finance the training of the U-23 football squad for the 25th SEA Games, which take place in December, following a visit by the Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Langsavad to the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.
The Hoang Anh Gia Lai group will also cover the expenses of the Lao footballers while they are training at the group’s sport centre in Gia Lai Province.
The Group and the Lao Ministry of Finance have signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of apartments for athletes competing in the SEA Games. Under the agreement, Hoang Anh Gia Lai will pay US$14 million to build 1,000 rooms for the 25th SEA Games.
Under Riedl’s stewardship, Viet Nam won a silver medal at the ASEAN Football Championship, known as Tiger Cup in 1998.
Viet Nam also won silver medals at the 1999 and 2003 SEA Games and the 23rd SEA Games in the Philippines in 2005.
However, he resigned after the team performed poorly at the 24th SEA Games in Thailand.
Viet Nam’s greatest achievement under Riedl’s stewardship was to reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals in July 2007, which the country co-hosted along with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
In 2001, the Austrian coach also failed to save Khanh Hoa from relegation in the V-League after four months.
VietNamNet/Viet Nam News
