It was not until they lost heavily to Malaysia that the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and coach Kim Sang-sik considered finding overseas Vietnamese players.
This story began when coaches Park Hang-seo and Troussier were still in charge. Every coach sees that domestic players have a threshold.
However, it is not difficult to point out that there are many objective and subjective challenges that prevent VFF from making the most of the resources from overseas Vietnamese players. Even effective use of them requires the participation of the entire football industry, not just the management agency.
According to the investigation of Lao Dong newspaper reporters, coach Kim Sang-sik is on a list of more than 100 overseas Vietnamese players around the world. However, if we put the "filter" of places to live and practice football, there are only 3 areas with many overseas Vietnamese players including Eastern Europe, the US, Australia and France.
The reason comes from the cultural, historical and residential factors of the Vietnamese people throughout the history of about 70 years. However, for this reason, the majority of overseas Vietnamese players are still very young, not ensuring their ability and professional competition experience.
Many Vietnamese families are not even interested in sending their children to study football. After many years of struggling in a foreign land, they hope that their children will study culture and find a stable job instead of adventuring with a round ball.
Therefore, the number of overseas Vietnamese players pursuing the profession of " thigh and shirt" has declined over the years. Not everyone has both economic conditions and really plays good football like Lee Nguyen, Mac Hong Quan or Patrik Le Giang.
VFF contacts many young players but initially can only invite them to join the U-level teams but cannot immediately select them to the national team. However, the recent cases of Thomas Mai Veeren and Andrej Nguyen Anh Khanh show a problem: foreign players of Vietnamese origin are not too excellent.
Some people who have adapted to V.League such as Adou Minh, Damoth Thongkham Savath, Pierre Lamonthe, Zan Nguyen... are not better than the team's stars. In particular, Damoth even played for the Laos team, running out of opportunities to play for the Vietnam team.
It is not without good players of Vietnamese origin. But from Lee Nguyen, Yohan Cabaye to now is the story of Boubacar Kamara, Ibrahim Maza, they are so excellent abroad and it is difficult to convince this group to play for the Vietnam national team.
The most likely player at the moment is Kenneth Schmidt, who is valued at 1.2 million euros and is playing in Bundesliga 2 in Germany. In fact, Malaysia or Indonesia also have to find people with moderate valuations, playing for not-so-famous teams.
Unfortunately, few overseas Vietnamese players are in the group that is suitable for their hometown's football. The problem of overseas Vietnamese players will become more difficult and challenging for VFF.
