Thomas Mai Veeren is among the 34 players called up by head coach Cristiano Roland for Vietnam U17, preparing for the 2025 AFC U17 Asian Cup finals.
Veeren, whose Vietnamese name is Mai Cong Thanh, was born in 2008 in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and a Vietnamese mother. He is a versatile midfielder capable of playing as an attacking midfielder, central midfielder, or winger.
According to the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), Veeren trained in the youth academies of renowned Dutch clubs ADO Den Haag and Feyenoord Rotterdam and played for the Netherlands’ youth teams from 2018 to 2023. In the 2023-2024 season, he played eight matches, scoring nine goals and providing four assists for the youth team of HV&CV Quick.
HV&CV Quick competes in the Dutch third division (Derde Divisie), which consists of two groups of 18 teams. The Dutch league system has ten tiers, with only the Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie being professional leagues, while the rest are considered amateur. In the 2023-2024 season, HV&CV Quick finished 11th in Group B with 47 points from 34 matches. This season, after 24 games, they sit at the bottom of the table with only 10 points and trail the 16th-placed team—who would enter the relegation play-off—by 13 points.
Veeren was called up after obtaining Vietnamese nationality and expressing his desire to represent Vietnam at the national level. However, VFF emphasized that competition within the squad is fair, and only the best players will be included in the final list.
Coach Roland previously worked with another overseas Vietnamese player, Maxwell James Peereboom, an Australian-born defender from the 2008 generation, during Vietnam U17’s training camp in September 2024 for the Asian qualifiers.
Peereboom, who stands at 1.84m, plays as a center-back for Gold Coast Knights FC in the National Premier Leagues Queensland—the highest league in Queensland and part of the Australian national league system. However, his performances did not convince Roland, and he was not selected for the qualifiers or the current training camp.
Alongside Veeren, Coach Roland called up 33 other players, with Hanoi FC contributing the most (12). They are followed by PVF (8), Ba Ria Vung Tau, Song Lam Nghe An, and Ha Tinh (4 each), and Hoang Anh Gia Lai (1). Twenty of these players were part of the squad that finished second in Group I of the AFC U17 Asian Cup qualifiers held in Phu Tho in October 2024.
The Vietnam U17 team convened on February 22 at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center (VYS). However, due to some players competing in the 2024-2025 U19 National Championship finals in Ba Ria Vung Tau, the squad was only fully assembled on March 2.
The team will train at VYS until March 22 before heading to Oman for a training camp until March 29, where they will play two friendlies against Oman U17. They will then travel to Saudi Arabia for the tournament, which runs from April 3 to April 20. The competition features 16 teams divided into four groups, with the top two from each group advancing to the quarter-finals.
Vietnam is placed in Group B and will face Australia (April 4), defending champions Japan (April 7), and UAE (April 10). The team’s goal is to reach the quarter-finals and secure one of Asia’s eight spots at the 2025 FIFA U17 World Cup in Qatar.
Vietnam U17 squad for the 2025 AFC U17 Asian Cup
Goalkeepers (5): Hoa Xuan Tin (Ba Ria Vung Tau), Ly Xuan Hoa (PVF), Nguyen Van Thang Long, Chu Ba Huan (Hanoi FC), Tran Van Dat (Song Lam Nghe An).
Defenders (10): Le Huy Viet Anh (PVF), Tran Hoang Viet, Pham Duc Duy, Nguyen Van Quan (Hanoi FC), Nguyen Hong Quang, Pham Minh Quan (Ba Ria Vung Tau), Tran Dong Thuc, Le Tan Dung (Song Lam Nghe An), Nguyen Van Phuc, Le Quang Truong (Ha Tinh).
Midfielders (12): Nguyen Duc Nhat, Tran Hoang Khanh (PVF), Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc, Dang Cong Anh Kiet, Dau Hong Phong, Nguyen Viet Long, Ha Huy Phuc, Bui Tuan Anh (Hanoi FC), Bach Trong Duong (Song Lam Nghe An), Nguyen Van Khanh, Mai Viet Dung (Ha Tinh), Thomas Mai Veeren (HV&CV Quick).
Forwards (7): Bui Duy Dang, Hoang Trong Duy Khang, Nguyen Van Bach, Nguyen Van Duong (PVF), Nguyen Thien Phu (Hanoi FC), Tran Gia Bao (Hoang Anh Gia Lai), Dau Quang Hung (Ba Ria Vung Tau).
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