BANGKOK, July 25 (Reuters) - Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who took full control of Manchester City on Monday, has arranged trials for three Thai national team
players at the English Premier League club.
Defenders Suree Sukha and Kiatprawut Saiwaeo and striker
Teerasil Dangda will train with the team in Manchester next
week, Thai soccer officials said on Wednesday.
Teerasil, 19, and Kiatprawut, 21, made their senior
national team debuts at the Asian Cup earlier this month, where
co-hosts Thailand failed to advance from the group stage.
Attacking fullback Suree, 24, has been a regular for the
national team since 2005.
The Shinawatra family on Monday secured 75 percent of
City's shares to take total control of the struggling side,
whose last major success was 31 years ago when they won the
League Cup.
Thaksin, who has been living in exile since he was ousted
in a bloodless coup last year, has said his £81 million
($163.8 million) takeover will help improve Thai soccer.
Analysts have dismissed the takeover as a publicity stunt
aimed at boosting his image among the soccer-obsessed Thai
masses, whose votes gave Thaksin unprecedented landslide
election victories in 2001 and 2005.
