Peeter Phanthavong is a 19-year-old attacking midfielder who plays for Ezra F.C. in Lao League 1. I first spotted Phanthavong at the 2023 U-17 Asian Cup. Since then, he has played 8 times for the Laotian senior team, and he has scored at a torrid pace in domestic football, with 51 goals and 24 assists in 53 senior appearances. Ezra F.C.’s qualification for the AFC Challenge Cup, the Asian equivalent of the Conference League, gave me the opportunity to see Panthavong against relatively serious senior competition.
Phanthavong is a diminutive player; I would estimate he is about 5’5″ (1.65 m) with a slim build. He mostly plays on the left wing for Ezra, though he is right-footed. Phanthavong is an extremely good passer, relative to the level he is currently playing at. He consistently breaks lines and advances the ball through 1-2s with teammates. Most of his passes are short-range, but he is very good at finding the seams in the opposition’s defensive lines. Phanthavong is also good at playing improvised passes by flicking on bouncing balls. He has very strong off-the-ball movement. He uses this both to receive the ball between the lines and to get shots from dangerous areas inside the box. Phanthavong’s first touch is extremely strong, especially relative to other players at his current level. Phanthavong is significantly faster than average, though I would not say he has elite pace. He is good at using his speed to get to the byline and play cutbacks for teammates. Phanthavong is not a particularly strong dribbler. This means that when he is isolated against a defender, he often has to take a sub-optimal shot because he cannot reliably improve his position by beating the player in front of him. Phanthavong is also very small, and this naturally puts him at a disadvantage in any kind of physical duel. He does a decent job of protecting the ball with his body and is not shy of going into a physical battle, but his frame comes with certain limitations. His general lack of physical strength also means that he does not strike the ball particularly hard. He takes set pieces for Ezra and does show good placement and curve on the ball, but the power isn’t really there.
Phanthavong is very active defensively, though of course Ezra were on the back foot for most of their games, so he had to be. Sometimes his small stature actually gives him a bit of an advantage in a tackle because he has a low centre of gravity. Phantahvong’s speed is also very helpful in covering ground and closing players down.
2.5 years on from when I first watched Phanthavong, I still think he is pretty good. He is clearly miles ahead of his current peers technically and tactically. Despite Ezra losing all three of their Challenge Cup games and mostly being outmatched, Phanthavong was involved in multiple big chances in each match. Laos is a very isolated country, in every sense of the word, so the path forward may be difficult. But a logical next step would be to a bigger club in a neighbouring ASEAN country. In the long run, I think Phanthavong could play in a top Asian league if he gets the right opportunities and is able to adapt.
Target Scouting 