Opportunity for Vietnamese football to 'turn into a dragon'?

Now, Mr. Thang has left the football field, but what everyone must admit is that he was the bridge to bring the Portuguese coach to the Vietnam team after the success at Gach DTLA. Mr. H. Calisto ignited the desire of the generation of players Tai Em and Minh Phuong, and then they were the ones who brought the AFF Cup 2008 Gold Cup to Vietnam for the first time.

The bosses and the first sweet fruit of the season

Talking about the success of Vietnamese football in the past 2 years, people cannot help but mention Mr. Duc and Mr. Hien. If Mr. Duc cut down dozens of hectares of rubber trees, he was deeply dreaming of opening the HAGL JMG Academy to create football talents. He personally went to Korea to invite Mr. Park to coach and paid him a salary for 2 years.

Mr. Hien (Do Quang Hien) poured money into football so that Hanoi FC soon became a professional team, gathering a series of stars of Vietnamese football. This was the time when he was enjoying the "early sweet fruit of the season", Hanoi FC won many national championships, and at the same time contributed a series of pillars of the national team under coach Park Hang-seo.

More and more foreign football experts and coaches with qualifications come to work in this S-shaped land. Photo: PVF

It is not simple when renewing the contract, Mr. Park Hang-seo is very interested in the direction that Vietnamese football (VFF) will aim for two important playgrounds: the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup. He wants to know the development strategies of the training centers PVF, Hanoi, Viettel, SLNA on the way to approaching the international standard model. He understands that this is an important condition for contributing many players to the national team, U17-U19-U23 in the future.

In the "relay" race of Vietnamese football, there needs to be businessmen joining hands. There needs to be many Mr. Thang, Mr. Duc and Mr. Hien... in the process of developing the country's football. More than anyone, Mr. Park also knows the information that after 20 years of playing professional football, there are still 4/14 teams that have not met the standards to participate in the national championship. Everything needs to be urgently resolved by VFF and the clubs soon.

Dream of "transforming into a dragon"

Recently, billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong has proactively joined hands with VFF, signing a strategic cooperation agreement to support the development of Vietnamese football, focusing on international tournaments from 2019-2024, in which the main goals are the 2024 Olympic Finals and the 2026 World Cup.

The achievements at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship and the 2020 World Cup qualifiers will give VFF more confidence in planning development strategies for the following years. The "Park Hang-seo effect" with consecutive victories over the past two years has delighted fans, inspiring Vietnamese football to seize the opportunity to develop. If things go well, we can even accelerate the implementation of the set goals earlier than expected.

Now, the Vietnamese team is no longer a "backdoor" when playing in the Asian Cup, and the U23 Vietnam team under the direction of Mr. Park has the opportunity to compete fairly for a place in the Tokyo Olympics.

PVF Football Training Center is considered one of the most modern in Southeast Asia. Photo: PVF.

As Mr. Park just said in Korea: “With my ability, level, and limited time, I can only bring Vietnamese football close to the continental level. If I want to go further, I have to wait for the next person.”