Coach Huu Thang: To have a strong team, there must be many football academies.

(Baonghean) - Coach Huu Thang talked with Nghe An Newspaper reporters about what needs to be done to develop Nghe An's football potential.

According to Coach Huu Thang, there is a great need for social football movements such as the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth and Children Tournament.

PV:Song Lam is a football team with a rich tradition, a famous training ground for young players, but recently SLNA's youth training has somewhat stagnated, while many quality training grounds have appeared nationwide. So what should SLNA do to develop its football potential and not fall behind, sir?

Coach Huu Thang:Having many football centers developing across the country is a good thing. Because when there are many training centers, the country's football will develop more. Up to now, Song Lam Nghe An has trained many quality players, who have contributed a lot to the national team. Now, with the development of the centers, we must try harder to not fall behind.

Football depends a lot on economic issues, and Song Lam Nghe An Club always faces difficulties in this issue. To overcome this problem, we must socialize football, call on all small and medium enterprises, who share the same passion, to participate in contributing and sponsoring football, surely Nghe An football will develop. We cannot rely on just a few individuals or a few companies to sponsor and make Nghe An football develop, but we must rely on the community, small and medium enterprises inside and outside the province, a small contribution from them will create a financially strong Song Lam football team.

PV:In Nghe An, there have also been successful football socialization movements, such as the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament which has entered its 20th year this year. This is a playground to select young players for SLNA Club. What do you think about this tournament?

Coach Huu Thang:A tournament with a history of 20 years proves that the tournament has had a certain success and many players have grown up from this tournament. As far as I know, many players have grown up and become famous from this tournament such as: Van Quyen, Cong Vinh, Lam Tan, Nhu Thuat, Trong Hoang, Minh Duc,... I think a playground that has trained such famous athletes will develop more and more. That is a good thing about grassroots football. Only from grassroots football can one become professional. Besides, in recent years, people have organized tournaments such as Vinh-League, farmers' football tournament, other grassroots tournaments... which have made the football movement very strong, making the love of football spread more and more, and from this love of football, many people will come to football, making football develop more and more.

Youth Team Goalkeeper Nguyen Manh (blue shirt - middle) takes a photo with Do Luong team, winner of the Youth - Youth Football Cup Nghe An Newspaper 2013 - Photo: Duc Dung

PV:As a professional football player who has studied many football backgrounds in developing countries, in your opinion, what should we do to develop football in Vietnam in general and Nghe An in particular?

Coach Huu Thang:Personally, I always dream of having a football academy right in Song Lam Nghe An, and more broadly, in the whole country there should be 4 to 5 football academies. I talk about this issue a lot, in interviews about my wishes for football, I always say I wish there would be many football academies like Hoang Anh Gia Lai. Because with just a few centers like Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Viettel, SLNA, Hanoi T&T... it is difficult for us to select a good national team, and we need to have more youth football training centers.

According to coach Huu Thang, there should be more football academies like Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

To go the right way of professional football, we must establish football training academies. There must be appropriate financial and intellectual investments and links with foreign clubs for Vietnamese football to develop. We cannot expect to have achievements today that we have not prepared for before. If we do, it will only be temporary.

PV:Thank you!

Duc Chuyen(Perform)