Youth football training: 'Drums beat one way, trumpets blow the other'

First, it is easy to name some of the most famous football training centers in the country, providing many good players for the national teams such as Viettel, PVF, Hanoi, HAGL, Song Lam Nghe An. Even in the past, names like Da Nang, Dong Thap, Nam Dinh were also highly appreciated in the matter of nurturing talents.

However, it is regrettable that the above training centers have developed in an unsynchronized manner. Like the name Dong Thap, which used to be a storm, a direct competitor with SLNA in tournaments such as U17, now they are facing many difficulties in development orientation, output and landing place for young players. Having to compete in the lower division has also put Dong Thap in a dilemma.

Nam Dinh football also once “made waves”, the highlight being the talented generation of players who won the U21 championship in 2011. Except for the training centers with strong investment in finance, facilities and expertise like in the North, the SLNA, Nam Dinh and Dong Thap centers all faced many difficulties. When the competition to find and nurture talent became increasingly fierce, there were times when they were left far behind.

Youth football training increasingly requires professionalism. Photo: NVCC

That backwardness is clearly shown at SLNA when youth training here relies too much on traditional methods, experience and the coaching talent of masters such as Coach Nguyen Van Thinh, Le Ky Phuong, Hoang Dang Hong, Dinh Van Dung or before that, the late Coach Van Sy Chi.

Of course, their role is very important, but what SLNA and many other clubs lack the most is facilities, nutrition, healthcare... The difference can be clearly seen when young PVF players can be fed with a diet of up to 1 million VND/day.

Meanwhile, young players like SLNA only earn from 150-300 thousand VND/day depending on the time of training and competition. While PVF and Viettel have dozens of training grounds, SLNA only has 2 artificial fields and 1 natural field. On the natural grass field alone, coach Quang Truong and his players are practicing with the players, causing this field to serve 4 shifts per day.

The football philosophy and youth training system of each club in the V.League are also very different. While the national team is currently built according to the 3-4-3 formation, most youth teams build a 4-4-2 style of play. And when they become professional players and are called up to the national teams, they have to start getting used to a new tactic.

Vietnam U19 team. Photo: VFF

SLNA is a very strong team from U11 to U15, which is a stage that relies heavily on talent, but starting from U19 to U21, which requires tactical thinking, Nghe An players are surpassed by opponents such as HAGL, Hanoi, Viettel, PVF. The key point according to experts is that when young players grow up, they are constantly changing coaches, the philosophy and training methods are also different, but even within a club there is no consistency in the general curriculum.

Mr. Jurgen Gede - former Technical Director of Vietnam Football once proposed to organize a seminar with coaches across the country. It was just a conversation like colleagues, he recounted, the experiences and conclusions were his own and how to apply them was up to each person. But during the time he spoke, few people interacted to discuss.

According to this technical director, Vietnamese players are smart and skillful, but that is not enough. He emphasized the issue of awareness, discipline, and eating habits among young Vietnamese players. In addition, players under 21 years old in Vietnam have too few opportunities to show their skills. The number of matches played only fluctuates from 12 to 15 matches per year.

Youth training in Vietnam is not uniform, causing coach Park Hang-seo to face many difficulties in building a playing style for the national team. Graphics: TK

Fortunately, some clubs such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Viettel now have a "backyard" - that is, the B team competing in the Second and First Divisions. As for SLNA, the Nghe An team, they are looking to send young players to lower-ranked clubs so that the players can gain experience.

Even talents like Xuan Manh, Van Khanh, Thanh Chung, Dinh Trong... also had time to fight in the lower divisions to become stronger. Along with that, VFF has created an additional National Cup for the U15 and U17 age groups in addition to the National Championship.

Another feature that shows the difference between Vietnamese training centers is the focus on cultural training, foreign languages ​​and even Football Laws. These are extremely important and almost urgent for players who want to be professional. Of course, with training centers that are “not full enough”, it is difficult to pay attention to cultural training, ethics and life skills for players.

Hopefully, in this transitional period when Vietnamese football has a new Technical Director, he will be given more real power to develop Vietnamese training centers in a more synchronous manner. From there, helping coaches like Park Hang-seo have more good options, feel secure in their duties instead of having to "retrain" each movement and movement every time the players join the national team.

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