U23 Vietnam and the story of promoting the country's image

During my working trip to the faraway country of Canada, I heard the Vietnamese ambassador there say very simply, “Journalists should focus on introducing the identity of their homeland and country, starting with Vietnamese dishes for people far away from the Fatherland. Both the old and the young want to hear, remember and follow. From there, learn, remember your mother tongue, remember your roots, and from there spread to broader issues...”

On the first day of the new year 2018, I watched a documentary on VTV4 about Vietnamese traditional martial arts and the process of building and promoting them in Europe, Africa and many places around the world. Not only do Vietnamese people and their children practice the martial arts tradition that our ancestors left behind, but the spirit and value of Vietnamese traditional martial arts have attracted and fascinated many people around the world.

From Vietnamese traditional martial arts, the image of Vietnam is clearly promoted, not stopping at specific lessons but seemingly raised to the level of a way of life, a will to proactively overcome all complex situations of life. More and more people, many places in the world come to Vietnamese traditional martial arts, for that reason, to Vietnamese people.

Most recently, the journey of conquering themselves, confidently overcoming all difficulties and obstacles of the U23 Vietnam players at the U23 Asian Football Championship is considered one of the impressive and effective events promoting the image of Vietnam that has not been done or has not/cannot be done for a long time. Recently, many successful Vietnamese people abroad have returned to the country to do something of regional and world stature. And they have set "records", proud titles, not just once, not just one project and are still quietly, silently rising with great, burning aspirations.

Do you remember at the end of 2010, in Marca - a famous Spanish sports newspaper, Real Madrid's head coach at that time, Jose Mourinho, angrily exclaimed after a match with too many problems "It's so ugly. If I were a spectator, I wouldn't watch this match. If I were at home, I'd turn on a Eurosport channel to watch the match in Vietnam.". Everyone knows, this is a "reverse promotion" of Vietnamese football which is currently classified as a "lowland".

And just 7 years later, in early 2018, this same leading sports newspaper in the land of bulls excitedly reported on U23 Vietnam when the team successively defeated the "big guys", reaching the final of the Asian tournament: "Vietnam makes history, plays in first continental final”.

Spreading to the foggy land, the leading sports newspaper in the most attractive tournament on the planet, the Premier League, the Daily Mail also devoted space to talk about coach Park Hang Seo's team, which just participated in the U23 Asia and achieved results beyond expectations and the day of returning "The Vietnam U23 football team was warmly welcomed by thousands of home fans on the streets of the capital Hanoi, despite missing out on the championship title...”

Not only the world's leading sports press, but also the leading economic press such as the American magazine Forbes also spoke out: "Their performance attracted worldwide attention and showed the promising future of Vietnamese football.".

In this story that will be told a lot, a lot, the promotion is first of all for each Vietnamese citizen. It is not easy, but once you have the will, confidence and the "martial arts family's" qualities, once you have been trained properly and fundamentally under the guidance of a teacher who loves his students, behind you is a country that not only admires football achievements but most importantly admires, is proud of, and admires the overcoming of difficulties, the rising up... then the belief will be built, consolidated, and become a launching pad to a higher, farther destination for everyone.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this promotion and advancement is not only for football, for sports, for Vietnamese people, but also for the Southeast Asian region, which has long been considered a "lowland" in many aspects as mentioned above.

The method of "slow and steady wins the race" to promote the image through the world's leading television channels, or many other effective methods as well as the "impressive shot" that changed the world's perspective from U23 Vietnam, all have contributed greatly to the process of highlighting the image of the country and Vietnamese people in the period of integration and development.

Those things are not easy at all but not impossible, right? The "heroes" who have appeared and will appear brightly, as well as many other silent people who are highlighting the Vietnamese mark and Vietnamese brand to the world?