Troussier pays big price for Vietnam's disappointing run: French media

"Troussier's experience in international football is as long as a river, with an impressive resume at the age of 69. But he paid the price for Vietnam's disappointing results. The poor performance against Indonesia was the last straw that dismissed him," football365 wrote.

The news was also delivered by several major newspapers in France, including RMC Sport. The country's leading sports newspaper wrote: "Troussier took over as Vietnam head coach more than a year ago and promised to bring the team to the 2026 World Cup for the first time. But with only three points after four matches, Vietnam are having little chance of entering the next qualifying round. In addition, the team also lost all three Asian Cup group stage matches in January 2024, finishing at the bottom of the group."

Troussier was appointed by Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) as national head coach in February last year, succeeding Park Hang-seo, but only helped the team win one of seven official matches.

During the 3-0 loss to Indonesia in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers at My Dinh Stadium on Tuesday night, many fans called for Troussier to step down.

He did not resign in the post-match press conference but reached an agreement to terminate his contract prematurely with VFF a few hours later.

French football website Maxifoot said that Troussier has been "under pressure for many months and couldn’t keep his position."

According to newspaper Le Figaro, coach Troussier said he wanted to take Vietnam to the 2026 World Cup in North America and the 2024 Summer Olympics in France. His first target was considered unsuccessful and before he could work on the second, he was let go.

Instead, Hoang Anh Tuan will continue that goal by coaching Vietnam at the 2024 U23 Asian Cup in Qatar from April 15 to May 3.