When Chanathip, Quang Hai... will not attend AFF Cup 2022?

However, according to the individual calculations of each football federation, people can bring the national team or U23 to participate like Indonesia brought the core U23 to participate in the AFF Cup 2020 or here there is information that Thailand will only bring the U23 team to defend the Gold Cup won back in 2020 (actually competing in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic).

For Vietnamese football, the upcoming AFF Cup 2022 has its own meaning, both to achieve the goal of regaining the throne lost to rival Thailand, and to bid farewell to "wizard" Park Hang-seo after 5 years of resounding success. Therefore, the story of bringing the Vietnamese team to compete is certain, there is absolutely no case of U23 participating as a way to rub shoulders, considering the long-term future for the 2026 World Cup or the 2030 World Cup as many people think.

Quang Hai may be retained by Pau FC, instead of returning to compete in the AFF Cup 2022. Photo: Pau FC

Because there is only one "door", the coachPark Hang-seoOf course, the most satisfactory and quality squad will be chosen according to the strategist's point of view and perception to achieve the set goal, as a precious gift to give to Vietnamese fans. This squad, of course, must and should have star Quang Hai, currently playing in the French 2nd division, Pau FC team. The problem is that the AFF Cup is not part of the FIFA competition system, so Quang Hai or any regional star playing abroad cannot return home, but there must be an agreement between the two sides. At that time, the regional national teams may benefit, the fans may benefit, but for the players in the new club, it will be interrupted, even disrupted, and of course, the trip to learn and compete may not necessarily yield as many results as expected.

Currently, there is information that Quang Hai will not return to the AFF Cup and Mr. Park Hang-seo will have to calculate whether to use Van Quyet or Van Khang? Meanwhile, rival Thailand will almost certainly not have the service of top star Chanathip, and may also be without Supachok and Veerachat, who are currently playing in the J-League. This means that for the top candidates Thailand or Vietnam, both teams will lack key, innovative and creative factors, which will significantly affect the ambitions that these teams set.

Chanathip Songkrasin confirmed that he will not participate in the AFF Cup 2022. Source: Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper

That could very well lead to a decline in the quality of the AFF Cup, and its appeal would be diminished accordingly. Not to mention that if a team brings their U23 team to the AFF Cup as a way to learn, the quality would be even more debatable. We all know that Indonesia once brought a potential U23 team to the AFF Cup as mentioned above. They could play well in a few matches, even reaching the final, but they could not do anything against Thailand, with the excellent Chanathip. Then, this same U23 team from Indonesia competed in the SEA Games but were unsuccessful, further demonstrating that it is difficult for regional football to "surpass" anything, big or small?

When Quang Hai, Chanathip... do not participate in the AFF Cup, it is the time when a series of naturalized stars from the Philippines, Malaysia... are free to play in the lowlands. Vietnamese women's football has had difficulties with a series of American football stars of Filipino origin, so it is very likely that their male colleagues will also sweat when facing similar naturalized players. It will be very difficult for not only the Vietnamese team but even Thailand and Indonesia if these teams are purely domestic. While teams in the region and the world consider naturalization to be normal, Vietnamese football is still very cautious in calling up naturalized players to the national team, or calling up but not being able to play like Adriano Schmidt (Vietnamese name is Duy). Regarding this, it is clear that football is a sport that receives a lot of investment and attention, but is still behind basketball, for example? And so the question of when the World Cup dream will become a reality is not easy to answer, although conditions are becoming more and more favorable and opportunities are opening up more and more.

Certainly not just oneQuang Haibut need more good players willing to go abroad to study to improve their personal level and contribute to the team, so that they can participate in official FIFA tournaments, without paying attention to tournaments outside the system, such as the AFF Cup that we are currently placing all our trust in.