Huu Thang and the mission to rescue the "sinking ship" of Ho Chi Minh City Club

The Journey of the "Sinking Ship"

In recent days, on social networks and in some newspapers, there have been rumors that Ho Chi Minh City Club is about to disband after spending 150 billion VND for this season, but the main sponsor of this club has not yet received the agreement signed between the two parties from Ho Chi Minh City.

This information has caused confusion and even anger among fans. Because before, when taking over this club, the sponsor promised to create a club with a solid foundation and a “new force” in Vietnamese football, but after only 2 seasons, the sponsor threatened to dissolve it.

Saigon Port won the 2001-2002 football season.

Remember Ho Chi Minh City Club, the predecessor of Saigon Port Club, has a long tradition, a long history of achievements, as well as the love and support of many fans, but the place that created the brand of the team abandoned its own child. At the end of 2008, the leaders of Saigon Port announced that there was no more funding to maintain the team. This meant that the Saigon Port name was abolished. After that, the main sponsor, Vietnam Steel Company, jumped in, and the club's leaders made the decision to change the team's name to operate according to a professional model. In particular, the nickname Ho Chi Minh City Football Club was chosen with the consent of the club's governing body, Ho Chi Minh City Football Company Limited, and the Ho Chi Minh City Football Federation.

The ambition of the team's leadership is to become a typical football club, as well as the convenience of attracting support from the government as well as attracting sponsorship from the city's businesses. Therefore, on January 22, 2009, the club officially changed its name to Ho Chi Minh City Football Club. However, from here, the club gradually declined and was relegated in the 2009 season. In 2016, Ho Chi Minh City Football Club won the 2016 National First Division Championship and returned to the V. League.

Ho Chi Minh City Club returns to V.League after many years of absence by winning the 2016 First Division championship

In the debut season of Ho Chi Minh City Club in V.League 2017, former Nghe An striker Le Cong Vinh was entrusted with the responsibility of acting President of the Club. At that time, Cong Vinh was the youngest football club leader in V.League. At that time, Cong Vinh shared: “I think, first of all, if you want to dream of winning the championship, you must play pure, noble football and have pride. Maybe one day the team wins or loses, but Ho Chi Minh City fans must win. That is the goal for us”.

As the club's acting president, Cong Vinh still personally sells tickets and signs shirts for fans.

And CV9 immediately got to work, with many positive changes, such as directly selling tickets to fans, renovating the changing room and toilets at Thong Nhat Stadium, buying new buses, signing a sponsorship contract with a famous Japanese shirt brand... Despite a lot of investment, Ho Chi Minh City Club's achievement was only 12th place on the rankings at the end of the season.

After the end of the 2017 season, the leadership of Ho Chi Minh City Club set an ambitious goal of turning this team into a force in V.League 2018. Accordingly, Cong Vinh continued to make strong moves such as terminating the contracts of 13 players when V.League 2017 ended, and bringing in many new quality contracts for the club. That is the new head coach Toshiya Miura and very "cool" assistants such as goalkeeper coach Vo Van Hanh, fitness coach Martin Forkel, language assistant Tran Hung Cuong... Along with new recruits such as Phi Son, Van Thanh, Thanh Diep, Ngoc Duc and Ngoc Thinh.

Entering the 2018 season, Cong Vinh created "blockbuster" transfers, bringing in expensive contracts with quality coaches and players for Ho Chi Minh City Club.

Also at the beginning of the 2018 season, Cong Vinh simultaneously announced the new logo and Youtube channel of the club. In particular, the new logo of Ho Chi Minh City Club has a round outer border, surrounded by a powerful ship surfing the waves!

However, when the “ship” of Ho Chi Minh City Club was stumbling out to sea with matches that were not as expected, the acting President Le Cong Vinh suddenly announced his resignation, surprising the team members. Thus, after just over a year of association, Cong Vinh and Ho Chi Minh City Club “went their separate ways”.

Talking about this “unfinished marriage”, Le Cong Vinh said that he and his sponsor “didn’t see eye to eye” so breaking up was good for both of them. But many people think that this was a wise move by the former captain of the Vietnamese team as he quickly escaped the “sinking ship”.

Waiting for the new captain's strategy

In recent days, while Le Cong Vinh was busy launching his autobiography, the club where CV9 had just left, was rumored to be disbanding. However, on the same day that the news of disbandment spread, Ho Chi Minh City Club "put out the fire" by introducing the new Chairman of the Club, Mr. Nguyen Huu Thang (former head coach of SLNA and the national team), and the Executive Director, Ms. Mae Mua (a famous player broker in the V.League before).

As a coach, Huu Thang once led SLNA Club to win the 2011 V.league championship.

According to experts, with the “lightning” debut of the new Chairman and CEO, Ho Chi Minh City Club has not yet been dissolved, but the official document “complaining of difficulties” after spending 150 billion VND of this team is real. Therefore, it is unknown what the future of this club will be, if the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City cannot meet the “demands” of the main sponsor.

Coach Huu Thang unexpectedly debuted as Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Football Club, along with him was Ms. Mae Mua as Executive Director of the Club.

Many people hope that, with the strategic talent and relationships of Coach Huu Thang, who used to be the coach of the Vietnam national team, and Ms. Mae Mua, who used to be the first official player agent in Vietnam, the "sinking ship" of Ho Chi Minh City Club will soon be salvaged, and not follow the footsteps of Mr. Thuy's Saigon Xuan Thanh Club.

With the strategic talent of Coach Huu Thang, many people hope that the "ship" of Ho Chi Minh City Club will move forward.

For Coach Huu Thang, taking on a new task for the first time, as the head of a club, he must gather the strength of not only the Nghe An people who are playing for Ho Chi Minh City Club but also the entire team of players and the coaching staff of the team to look in the same direction, and in addition, with his relationship, he will work with the main sponsor to call on the philanthropists to invest in the Ho Chi Minh City team to develop more and more, so that he is worthy of being the "master", "senior" of Le Cong Vinh in life as well as in professional work./.

Duc Dung