Beautiful images on the Sappro Dome stands

(Baonghean) - “Proud”; “touched”; “honored” “hero of Vietnamese football”… and many other beautiful words were widely shared on the Internet at a dizzying speed in the match between Consadole Sapporo Club and JEF United last weekend when striker Le Cong Vinh was substituted for only the last 9 minutes of the match. An indescribable feeling for the hometown fans mixed with a bit of pride in the blood of Lac Hong…

Since the final match of the 25th SEA Games in 2009 at the Lao National Stadium between the U23 Vietnam team and the U23 Malaysia team, the stands have been dyed a brilliant red when the fans raised the Vietnamese national flag. Nearly 4 years later, that image was recreated at the Japanese Second Division Professional Football League, where the only Vietnamese player, Le Cong Vinh, played. This beautiful image was created by Vietnamese fans living and studying in Japan and spread to Japanese audiences cheering for this striker from Quynh Luu.

A corner of the Sapporo Dome stadium – home of Consadole Sapporo Club – is covered with the Vietnamese national flag. Photo: Internet.

Since going abroad, Le Cong Vinh has only scored 2 goals for Consadole Sapporo Club in the Japanese professional league J-League 2, and before the match with JEF United, this striker wearing the number 19 shirt had just recovered from an ankle injury. Therefore, the possibility of playing is not high, and the Japanese professional team always has many other excellent and healthy players to replace him. But once again, Cong Vinh was favored by head coach Keiichi Zaizen to enter the field for 9 minutes. According to the statistics of Consadole Sapporo Club officially announced on their official website, that is, when Cong Vinh is in the squad, it has attracted a large number of audiences from overseas Vietnamese and also expanded to Japanese audiences. As an advanced professional club, they have measured the value of Cong Vinh's image, which brings no small economic benefits. All the souvenir stalls and jerseys bearing Cong Vinh's number 19 at Sapporo Dome are always "sold out" and more importantly, Cong Vinh's image value has brought a large sponsorship contract with Sumimoto Group - when the group's business direction is to promote development in Southeast Asian countries.

Speaking via email, striker Le Cong Vinh said: “Before the match, I was invited by the club's leadership to attend a festival to directly teach football skills to children in Tokyo, or to attend the signing ceremony of the team's sponsorship contract with the Sumimoto Group. I know that the team's leadership organized the distribution of free tickets (invitations) to many Vietnamese people in the area to watch the football match, but I was very surprised when the club also organized the printing and distribution of the Red Flag with Yellow Star (National Flag) of Vietnam to the fans when they entered the stadium. Therefore, when I was able to play on the field, I felt very happy and emotional when looking up at the stands.”

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, there has been a wave of emotions with articles and comments flooding forums and personal websites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. Even at the SLNA Fan Club - the current home team of striker Le Cong Vinh, members also expressed their pride with an indescribable emotion. Mr. Thai Doan Duyen (in charge of the SLNA Fan Club in the Northern region) said: "Regarding the image of Sapporo Club organizing for fans (including both Japanese and Vietnamese) to raise the Vietnamese national flag in the stands: Firstly, it shows that they highly value and want to honor the beautiful images and beautiful images when Cong Vinh was called "Vietnamese Hero" when joining Japanese football.

Second, the unity and professionalism in organizing football and cheering for football of the Japanese people are very high. It is not the Japanese flag, the Sapporo Club flag but the Vietnamese flag, and most of the fans have the same unified action. Third, the way Sapporo does football in particular and the Japanese people in general is worth learning. When they have no source of income, they live on donations from fans and supporters. When they have an image, they commercialize their football activities to find sources of income. And especially when they have a sponsor (Sumitomo), they fulfill their commitments to the sponsor correctly and excellently! A fan with the nickname "Khong Minh" wrote: "It's time for SLNA to make an economy based on football, let's learn from Sapporo Club".

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