Tell Van Duc: Thanks for everything! Good luck!

V-League 2022 has officially ended after the announcement and award ceremony of the new season.

In fact, preparations for personnel, facilities, training programs, etc. for the new season have been underway for many teams. This proves that Vietnamese football, with the V-League tournament considered the “top in the region”, is still taking steady, stable steps and opening up many hopes ahead.

Player Phan Van Duc.

First of all, in terms of personnel, when Saigon FC is relegated and disbanded (although some people still say that they will be transferred?), it means that the players will look for a new destination if they are still strong enough to "stay" in the V-League, or play amateur football and then retire like Quoc Long. Even the team that played very well last season, Hai Phong, has had many changes in personnel: Rimario, the best foreign player with 17 goals, along with a group of players from Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Hanoi FC, were loaned out and immediately left (except for Viet Hung). Then, right at the "dark horse" team Binh Dinh, the core foreign player Hendrio is also considered "unsuitable" for next season and will have to find a new destination... The team that emerged as the place to "attract" the most talent, the earliest being Nam Dinh with a series of good players from all over the place being "summoned" to Thien Truong Stadium, is probably the most notable team and is hoped to create a fierce race for the new season instead of the traditional race for... relegation!

But the most shocking story is that Van Duc "broke his contract" with Song Lam Nghe An to join the newly promoted team Cong An Ha Noi, along with rumors that Van Hau also left Ha Noi FC to reunite with his teammate Van Duc at the new team. The shock is because Van Duc still has a 2-year contract with the Vinh team when the new sponsor "achieved" to keep this striker last season. For the Nghe An team, the tradition has always been to try to keep a few pillars to be the locomotive and no one is better than Van Duc in terms of performance and dedication in recent years.

The story of some of Mr. Duc's favorite players at Hoang Anh Gia Lai leaving in the next few days, such as Van Thanh, Hong Duy... will also cause a stir in the domestic football scene, even though the world football story is currently attracting more attention and interest.

Now we begin to realize the good and the difficult things that go hand in hand with many other things in professional football that have only recently appeared and are just beginning. That is the story of a player “breaking the contract” to go to a new team like Van Duc (there are countless in the world, the most typical is Neymar moving from Barcelona to PSG). Of course, “breaking” is doing something wrong, doing something different from the signed contract and of course one must take responsibility and compensate for that action according to the contract. If the player has a wish, the team will respect it, the player’s obligations to the team will be met, so it is okay, reasonable, and logical, even though “psychologically”, especially among the majority of fans, this surprise will not be easy to overcome?

The author of this article witnessed firsthand in the 2014-2015 Premier League season, Everton fans holding banners protesting Chelsea's attempt to use the power of money to pull promising young defender Jhon Stone away from Goodison Park. The result was that Stone went to... Man City, a team even richer than Chelsea, proving a clear reality of this eternal story...

Then, everything will lead to a reality in the V-League in the real professional era, whoever has abundant financial resources and legitimate ambitions will have good teachers and good students, of course, including training as a mandatory regulation, such as organizing youth tournaments in parallel with the V-League. This process will also gradually eliminate the types of quick wins, seasonal investments, and temporary achievements. What will come is that the value of players on the transfer market will increase, true to their real value, players will enjoy exactly what they contribute, sweat without having to worry about anything on or off the field...

Of course, things are never easy, sometimes we even have to go back to the starting point, have to do it again when we are manipulated, distorted, and counter-developed... Even big football foundations and big teams do not achieve their goals right away when they spend a lot of money to have achievements, and then have achievements but maintain them even more difficult... Fans everywhere have their own "favorites", their own stars, and want to keep them for themselves. It is not uncommon for fans to be angry, scolding... about incidents like Neymar or Messi leaving Camp Nou, or in our country, Van Quyen, Cong Vinh and now Van Duc leaving Vinh Stadium... Time and new joys will soothe and fill those extremely lovely "pains", the reality of professional football with its advantages will clearly and specifically show.

It is not just a matter of “his sister’s child goes, his aunt’s child grows up”, it is not just a matter of a team lacking ambition in a weak context, but professional football will “self-regulate” internal problems according to the law, not depending on any subjective will. Learn to act as professionally as possible, so that at first there are few people but later there will be more, more people, all saying to Van Duc or anyone who has to find a new place, or even retire: Thank you for everything! Good luck!