Coach Park stripped Que Ngoc Hai of the captain's armband.

On the evening of January 3, one day before letting the players "leave camp" and ending the AFF Cup 2020 campaign, coach Park Hang-seo held a team meeting. According to sources ofVnExpress, here he briefly announced the personnel plan for the next gathering in the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup - Asia region in mid-January.

Que Ngoc Hai also just left Viettel.

"I want to change," Coach Park declared. "Que Ngoc Hai will no longer be the captain of the Vietnamese team. I want him to focus more on playing football."

Que Ngoc Hai, born in 1993, is one of the best central defenders in contemporary Vietnamese football. However, he has also had many problems, and was banned from the national team for a foul that caused Tran Anh Khoa to break his leg in V-League 2015.

In 2018, Que Ngoc Hai was called up by coach Park to participate in the AFF Cup 2018. After the team won the championship, he was given the captain's armband to replace Nguyen Van Quyet, and held this responsibility throughout the following major tournaments, such as the second and third qualifying rounds of the 2022 World Cup and most recently the 2020 AFF Cup.

At the tournament that just ended in Singapore, Que Ngoc Hai played well, helping the team pass the group stage with a clean sheet. But in the first leg of the semi-final against Thailand, he and his teammates suffered a 0-2 defeat. In this match, the central defender from Nghe An caused controversy when he intentionally kicked the ball into the face of Supachok Sarachat, who was lying on the field, in retaliation for Nguyen Quang Hai being fouled by Theerathon Bunmathan earlier, but the referee did not blow the whistle.

Coach Park has not announced who will be the new captain, but confirmed that there will be many changes in personnel in the near future. "There are people sitting here who will not be called up again," the Korean coach emphasized.

After the quarantine ended, the team was disbanded yesterday, January 4. The players are expected to return to training from January 10 to prepare for the away match against Australia (January 27) and China (February 1) in the World Cup qualifiers - where Vietnam is at the bottom of Group B after six consecutive losses.

Coach Park is the most successful coach in the history of Vietnamese football. Since his arrival in late 2017, the teams have won the U23 silver medal in 2018, reached the semi-finals of the 2018 Asian Games, won the AFF Cup 2018, reached the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup and then passed the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup. Late last year, he activated a one-year extension clause in his second contract with the VFF, lasting until January 31, 2023.