But for the World Cup, Vietnamese football fans also have two big dreams. That is the men's national football team participating in the World Cup and the World Cup held in Vietnam.
In fact, some Vietnamese football teams have participated in world-class football tournaments such as the indoor futsal team, the national women's football team participating in the women's football World Cup, and most recently the U17 team that won a ticket to the World Cup at the end of this year.
But the men's football team is a different story. Going the furthest is only reaching the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup.
The 2026 World Cup ball is about to roll in the US, Canada and Mexico with 48 participating teams - the largest number ever.
In the atmosphere of the world football festival, two dreams of Vietnamese fans reappear.
This time, there are many grounds for those dreams to become reality. The large fan base is still the foundation, but the thinking about accessing major sports events is changing. That is Resolution 72-NQ/TW of the Politburo on a number of breakthrough solutions, strengthening the protection, care and improvement of people's health, emphasizing the effective implementation of national target programs and strategies to improve Vietnamese people's intellect, physical strength, stature, and life expectancy, National Strategy on Nutrition, and School Health Care Programs.
That is the training of young players with the participation of private economic enterprises. That is the awareness that the sports economy can become a "smokeless industry", strongly impacting trade, jobs, tourism...
And more importantly, infrastructure development thinking. A series of large symbolic projects have been started and expected to be completed soon in the future. That is the "super project" Olympic Sports Urban Area with the highlight being a stadium with a capacity of up to 135,000 seats, designed to FIFA standards, with the largest automatic opening and closing roof in the world. Rach Chiec National Sports Complex in Ho Chi Minh City is also being implemented.
These projects, when inaugurated, not only serve the needs of the people, but also affirm the capacity and infrastructure for Vietnam to organize large-scale world-class sports events.
The World Cup is no longer a distant dream. We are gradually integrating deeper into the world, including participating in and organizing a global football festival.
That is also a way to elevate Vietnam's position.
