Football and the 'boss'

That is the inevitable trend of maintaining and developing the king sport, not only meaningful for V. League but in the future will also expand its influence to the region and the world if there is a correct strategy and effective investment.

Starting from Mr. Thang, people saw a new face of Long An football, with the appearance of coach Calistor and a series of stars from Dong Tam Long An and the Vietnam national team such as Tai Em, Minh Phuong. Then came Mr. Duc with HAGL, not only recruiting good domestic players (at that time, most of them were players from... SLNA, which was subsidized and poor) but also a group of stars from neighboring Thailand, from Kiatisuk to Dusit, Thonglao... But perhaps the most meaningful work of Mr. Duc was to cooperate in training with Arsenal Club to create the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Arsenal JMG Academy with a special product, the famous U19 generation including Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Van Toan... and the growth of this group of stars is one of the foundations for Vietnamese football to escape the "village pond" of the region.

HAGL flies high, the credit goes to Mr. Duc. Photo courtesy

It is noteworthy that while Mr. Thang has "given up his weapons" for many years now, Mr. Duc is no longer training with Arsenal Club through the academy model as mentioned above and has not yet made the highest determination to bring HAGL back to its glorious past. The 2021 season is when HAGL will play well with an abundant and ambitious force. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has made all of Mr. Duc's plans to bring Kiatisuk back unfinished.

And we cannot help but mention the quiet but effective boss, Mr. Hien, at the time of the founding of T&T Hanoi and now Hanoi FC, with his strong, multi-layered resources, quickly bringing the capital's football to the top of V. League for many years in a row and, together with HAGL, contributing mainly to the success of Vietnamese football at that time.Head coach Park Hang-seo4 years now.

The Vietnam team during a training session. Photo: VFF

Obviously, the contributions of the above-mentioned bosses to Vietnamese football are commendable and worthy of recognition. The problem is that when the Vietnamese national team sets its World Cup ambitions, the contributions of the bosses as well as the entire football industry are not enough when in general the quality of Vietnamese players is still only at the regional level. Everyone knows that Mr. Duc letting Cong Phuong or Mr. Hien letting Van Hau play abroad has many goals, for both the business and the individual players and the entire football industry. Previously, talents like Huynh Duc and Cong Vinh also played abroad but their success was very limited, bringing little concrete, measurable results. Compared to neighboring Thailand on this story, it is clear that the bosses of Vietnamese football still have a lot of work to do, must think and be more decisive?

Mr. Hien. Photo: Archive

To raise the level of Vietnamese football, we need big bosses - truly strong investors, not only domestically with the V. League but also investing abroad, which many Thai bosses have successfully done even in the English Premier League. From that investment, we can send domestic players to study and train, compete and become the backbone of the national teams. Not to mention that "exporting players" must have a specific strategy, accept the cost, "expensive and worth it" to hope to find players with good quality in many aspects, enough to compete with the continent. Many attacking forces working together through the work of many dedicated bosses will of course create many top products to be qualified to talk to the world about the World Cup or ASIAD...

Investing in football is, of course, a risky investment, because it is very difficult to succeed even when spending a lot of money or a lot of money. But the rich bosses in the world are still constantly looking for ways to invest, buy football clubs and what they do next, only they know everything. Certainly football benefits, fans and players benefit. A whole series of business models following football benefit. Talented people have a "place to perform" from investing, doing business, becoming famous in the marketplace, strengthening their brand in the marketplace from football activities that attract billions of people - special and voluntary customers around the world.

Football and the boss are therefore two but one in the fascinating and attractive story of the round ball. Hopefully one day, Vietnamese football will have bosses with enough strength and passion to reach the regional and continental level.

People expect Vietnamese football to reach new heights, but in fact, to achieve that, first of all, it must be the strength of bosses like Mr. Duc and Mr. Hien... From there, there will be fundamental and modern youth training, good players will go abroad to study and compete, good teachers will guide, be persistent and sustainable, inherit and continuously cultivate, gradually improve to keep up with the world near and far...