Money and rice bowl!

(Baonghean) - How to have good foreign players, "worth the money, worth the rice bowl" is not an easy thing.

After the first phase of V-League 2017, a series of football teams liquidated their foreign players. First were Dyachenko (Ho Chi Minh City), Ash Apollon (Long An), Ideguchi (HAGL), Henry (SLNA)... Except for HAGL, most of the teams participating in V-League spent a lot of money to recruit foreign players for the attack.

But up to now, after 13 rounds, only 2 top foreign strikers like Uche and Stevens have scored 7 goals, there are quite a few "fake" foreign players on the Vietnamese pitch. Newcomers have not left their mark, players who have played in Vietnam for many years like Gonzalo have lost their form miserably, or Moses has not met expectations. Why?

There are fewer and fewer valuable contracts like goalkeeper Santos (right) of the former Gach DTLA. Photo: Internet

First of all, it must be affirmed that the reason why the quality of foreign players in V-League is not high is because there are fewer and fewer bosses interested in football. B.Binh Duong "suddenly lost its passion", SXKT.Can Tho, HAGL. SHB.Da Nang are not willing to open their wallets... perhaps only the young boss Cong Vinh is still enthusiastic.

When spending little money, it is of course difficult to find quality players. Besides, the V-League is currently facing fierce competition from neighboring countries such as Thai League (Thailand), Liga 1 (Indonesia) or Super League (Malaysia). The quality of these tournaments is gradually improving, the treatment of players is very good, so they attract good foreign players.

Without resources, experience and expertise to evaluate, teams prefer to “choose by themselves”. Each team has its own way of selecting foreign players, some set up a council, some assign the head coach, some the manager decides. V-League clubs have many unwritten rules that foreign players coming for trial must pay a “grease fee” if they want to sign a contract.

Ohala - SLNA is a foreign player who has caused much disappointment due to his declining performance. Photo: Document.

Without commission, good players are easily “shaken”, “fair play” makes bad players easily overlooked. In fact, some teams initially bought foreign players to play as strikers, but after playing for a long time without scoring, they had to switch to defense to… avoid wasting money. Therefore, many teams are suffering from the syndrome of “liking to buy” foreign players, but what they bought them for, doesn’t matter.

The process of selecting foreign players of the V-League teams is also different, so for many years, there has been a situation of "trying to call, burning no balls". When trying out, taking friendly matches, the opponent tackled the ball quite well, all foreign players handled the technique well. When entering the tournament, the game was fierce, the speed of the match was high, so many foreign players had frozen legs, and their physical strength also decreased significantly. That's why the ball boys at Vinh stadium, whenever they saw Olaha moving to the sideline to receive the ball, were mentally prepared to go find the ball outside the pit.

Except for Hanoi and SHB.Da Nang who are still thinking long-term, many V-League teams only sign short-term contracts. No good player would leave his hometown to play for hire and accept a contract of only a few months, and after a few months, if he plays well, the club will have difficulty keeping him.

Not only the second-to-last teams like Long An, SXKT Can Tho, but also the average teams like Ho Chi Minh City, XSKT Can Tho, B.Binh Duong, SLNA, SHB Da Nang are also looking to replace foreign players to strengthen their strength for the second leg. Teams competing for medals like Hanoi, Than Quang Ninh are also not out of the picture... But how to have good foreign players, "worth the money, the bowl of rice" is not an easy task!

N@T