French coach Otta, 37, has been appointed to lead the training at the football academy Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal JMG, based in Pleiku City, to replace the famed coach Graechen Guillaume.

The coach will work with his Vietnamese colleague Nguyen Van Dan to take over the job.

Otta played as a striker for the AS Nancy Lonnaine of the French second league from 1992-98 before moving to clubs RC Besangov and Lisboune of the French third league.

In 2003-05, he played for Bondean Stata and International Congo’s Premier League before retiring from his competitive career to start his training job.

At the instruction of Jean Marc Guillou, general director of the global sports organization and training company JMG, coach Otta replaced coach Guillaume, who was assigned to lead the Vietnamese national U-19 football team – with 16 of 22 players from the school – to take part in training trips to England, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Japan to prepare for the Asian and Southeast Asian U-19 Championships this year.

The company JMG has nine academies throughout the world, including sites in the Ivory Coast from 1994, Madagascar from 2000, Thailand from 2005, Mali from 2006, Algeria, Egypt, and Vietnam from 2007, Ghana from 2008, and Belgium from 2009.