Japanese expert returns
More than 10 years ago, Vietnamese football began cooperation with Japan. The appearance of coach Toshiya Miura when leading the U23 and Vietnam National Team was one of the memorable marks at that time, bringing a positive look to both teams. Notably, the victory over the Iranian Olympics and the milestone of passing the group stage of the 2014 ASIAD men's football tournament. This has gradually helped the country's football regain the trust of fans after a period of struggling in 2012 and 2013.
After Mr. Miura left in 2016, for a period of time, Japanese experts were rarely mentioned in the development of Vietnamese football. It was not until the end of 2020 that another Japanese expert, Mr. Yusuke Adachi, signed a contract with the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) as Technical Director.
Next, VFF has given this position to Mr. Koshida Takeshi in the past 2 years, while his compatriot Adachi "knocked the door" of Binh Phuoc club with the desire to create a promising roadmap, bringing the true characteristics of Japanese football to the Southeast team.
Returning to VFF, cooperation with Mr. Yusuke Adachi and Koshida Takeshi in turn helped the Federation gradually complete key goals. That is to train coaches with professional qualifications (Pro) right in Vietnam. Previously, Vietnamese coaches had to fly abroad at a cost of up to billions of VND to attend the above training course.
However, over the past 5 years, through the cooperation orientation between VFF and Japanese experts with teaching experience, the number and quality of domestic coaches receiving C, B, A, Pro certificates have increased significantly.
The influence of Japanese football has also been promoted at the club level. The proof is that Hanoi club has spent a large amount of money to invite coaches and colleagues from Japan to work in the first team. VFF has also just signed a contract with former Japanese player - Yukata Ikeuchi as a technical supervision advisor for U17 Vietnam in the 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals.
The power of a Korean coach
We can compare Japanese experts to artists in the journey of contributing and building Vietnamese football. As for Korean coaches who have come to Vietnam since 2017, they are considered a "map", directly helping national teams achieve impressive results in regional and continental tournaments.
Mr. Park Hang-seo is the most successful coach in the history of Vietnamese football at present. The Korean coach helped U23 Vietnam win the 2018 U23 Asian Runner-up, Top 4 of the 2018 ASIAD and 2 SEA Games Gold Medals. At the national team level, Mr. Park helped Vietnam win the ASEAN Cup for the second time in history in 2018, before entering the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup with his students and participating in the final qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup for the first time.
Following the success of his predecessor, coach Kim Sang-sik soon achieved success with the Vietnam National Team with the 2024 ASEAN Cup championship after more than half a year of traveling. In the past 7 years, some Korean coaches have also created a big buzz.
Mr. Gong Oh-kyun brought a new color to U23 Vietnam in the 2022 U23 Asian Cup finals. Mr. Chun Jae-ho won a domestic double with Hanoi FC. Although he is only an "fire-fighting" interim coach in difficult times, this coach has created an impressive achievement that few coaches in the history of V.League have achieved.
Up to now, the policy of cooperation, learning, and exploitation of Korean and Japanese football platforms has been helping Vietnam achieve success in many different aspects. Certainly in the coming period, with contracts continuously signed, clubs, youth teams, national teams to the macro level in the development of Vietnamese football will continue to improve and accelerate.
