Many "million dollar" players
The year 2024 will witness a series of million-dollar contracts for members of the Vietnamese national team. Except for Nguyen Filip - a Vietnamese-American player who has played in Europe for many years and Nguyen Xuan Son - who has only had Vietnamese citizenship for a few months, the prices of the local players have increased surprisingly.
The start of this "trend" was Pham Tuan Hai. The striker born in 1998 received a signing bonus of more than 21 billion VND for 3 years playing for Hanoi club. Next, Nguyen Quang Hai also received up to 27 billion VND when renewing with Hanoi Police club. Nguyen Hoang Duc broke all transfer records when he earned 30 billion VND and accepted to play in the First Division.
Goalkeeper Dang Van Lam was paid 26.8 billion VND to join Phu Dong Ninh Binh. Nguyen Cong Phuong did not play in Japan for 2 years and was paid 18 billion VND when he moved to Binh Phuoc - a number that many people could not imagine. Nguyen Van Toan was previously worth 21 billion VND when he left the club in Korea to return home to play for Nam Dinh.
The fact that star players are paid a lot of money has led to many mid-level players, or simply players who have just joined the youth team or national team for the first time, also increasing in price.
Striker Nguyen Dinh Bac, who only had time to explode in a few matches for the Vietnam national team, is rumored to have received up to 10.5 billion VND for 3 years playing for the Hanoi Police.
In 2025, it is forecasted that there will continue to be 1-2 transfer contracts worth nearly 20 billion VND.
Actual value
More data is needed to analyze whether the price of Vietnamese players is virtual or real. First, the transfer price does not simply depend on the expertise of a player. The amount of money spent is also related to the image value, brand, and the necessity and scarcity of the player for the team.
There are important reasons for the bosses to spend a lot of money on players. For example, Mr. Thuy - the sponsor of Phu Dong Ninh Binh did not want to wait and immediately bought the biggest stars of Vietnamese football. To convince Hoang Duc, of course, he had to pay a price that far exceeded what The Cong Viettel offered for this midfielder.
But looking at the big picture, since receiving a large sum of money for himself, the only player who really shined was Nguyen Cong Phuong. He scored consecutive goals to bring victory to the representative of the Southeast region. The rest played steadily but not as well as expected, and the level of image spread was not as before.
Of course, no Vietnamese player has reached the level of expertise worthy of the money they receive.
There is a story that many experts often discuss over tea and wine: the price of football players is now no different from the price of... apartments in Hanoi, increasing abnormally without any basis.
