One of the highlights of the opening match of LPBank V.League 2024-2025 was the goal that made Tran Gia Bao's name go down in history. The 16-year-old striker broke two records in a row: the youngest player to play and the youngest player to score in the V.League.
This player born in 2006 was a member of the U15, U16, and U17 Vietnam teams. Gia Bao was supposed to join the U17 team this time to prepare for the 2025 U17 Asian qualifiers, but Hoang Anh Gia Lai refused. The reason is that Gia Bao was registered in the first team of the mountain town team.
“It is not by chance that the club registered Gia Bao to compete in the V.League this season,” Technical Director Vu Tien Thanh emphasized, also showing that the Pleiku team highly appreciates the ability of this young talent. It is a pity for the national U17 team when there is no quality factor, but the club cannot be blamed when they are on duty in the V.League.
The problem is, how will Hoang Anh Gia Lai protect and develop this player. In the context of rejuvenating the squad, this is good news for Gia Bao because the opportunity to play will be more frequent than many other older players at other clubs. Therefore, the accumulation of experience will come faster.
However, it is also necessary to be careful with a player like Lamine Yamal - a young talent of Spanish football who shined at EURO 2024. Be careful in protecting him from social networks, the media and the "traps" of compliments. Be careful in calculating the time to put him on the field, because even though it is said that collision and tension help him mature faster, sometimes it also leads to certain consequences that affect the development process.
The issue is not redundant, because there have been many stories, many characters who are considered talented in Vietnamese football but cannot "mature" in the most effective way, even going in the opposite direction, ruining their careers.
16 years old, although talented, is still very young to need to be properly protected, developed according to the right process, in the context of scarce Vietnamese football talent.
