Cong Vinh announced his retirement after AFF Cup 2016

Vietnam national team striker Le Cong Vinh confirmed to foreign media that he will retire from the national team after completing his mission at the AFF Cup at the end of this year.

At the age of 31, Cong Vinh is still in very impressive form and he has been an indispensable player for the Vietnam national team, under any coach for many years. Therefore, Cong Vinh's announcement that he will retire early has surprised many people.

Responding to foreign media while participating in the Four Nations Cup in Myanmar with the Vietnam national team, Cong Vinh once again talked about the time when he will hang up his boots: “I think playing for the national team is the dream and desire of any player. But sometimes things are not as easy as you think.

Cong Vinh announced he will retire at the end of this year.

Some people think I play well, but many others say I am not a good player. But I do not care much about that. For me, I always fight with the head coach, with my teammates who are very young and have just joined the national team for the first time. I think I am a part of Vietnamese football. But this year will be the last time I wear the national team shirt. Because next year, I will retire."

Cong Vinh emphasized: “I love football very much. And I think after retiring, I will miss football very much. I will probably cry. AFF Cup 2016 will be the last tournament of my career”. Cong Vinh has announced many times that he will retire and he has also prepared for his future when he recently passed the entrance exam to Hanoi Law University (in-service). Cong Vinh said that he does not want to become a coach but decided to try his hand in another field.

Since his first appearance on the Vietnamese national team on June 9, 2004 in a match against South Korea in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers when he was only 19 years old (Vietnam lost 0-2 in the end), up to this point, Cong Vinh is the only one still remaining in the Vietnamese national team.

The match against Hong Kong was Cong Vinh's 74th appearance for the national team, surpassing former midfielder Nguyen Minh Phuong (73 matches) to become the player with the most appearances for the national team. Cong Vinh has scored a total of 45 goals and is the best scorer in the history of the Vietnamese team. The 45 goals that the Nghe An striker owns far exceeds the number of goals that his senior Le Huynh Duc scored when he was still playing at the top level for the national team (28 goals).

According to Vietnamnet