All teams focus on finding foreign players
One month later, on April 6th, round 1 of the 2026 National Championship will kick off at Dong Anh Gymnasium (Hanoi). According to records, 8 men's and 8 women's teams of this year's tournament are actively selecting foreign players to proceed to sign contracts and officially register with the Organizing Committee. The deadline for teams to register official foreign players is the technical meeting, close to the tournament competition time.
The latest case is that Xi Mang Long Son Thanh Hoa women's team has decided to recruit foreign player Cai Xiaoqing (China) to participate in round 1 of the 2026 National Championship. Previously, the first 2 foreign players who were definitely going to continue playing in Vietnam were setter Tichaya Boonlert (Hoa Chat Duc Giang, women's) and main attacker Kuon Mom (Hanoi, men's).
Currently, the group of 4 men's and women's teams that have led the National Championship 2025 are VTV Binh Dien Long An, LPBank Ninh Binh, Binh Chung Thong Tin, Vietinbank and Bien Phong MB, The Cong Tan Cang, Ho Chi Minh City Police, LPBank Ninh Binh have not officially decided on foreign players. However, the coaching staff have affirmed that they will add at least 1 foreign player to the squad.
Round 1 of the 2026 National Championship is organized in a new format, all teams in the men's and women's categories compete in a round-robin format. The regulation requires 1 men's team and 1 women's team to play 7 round-robin matches. "The results of round 1 are of great value before the team returns to round 2. Therefore, the selection of foreign athletes is also very important," a representative of the coaching staff of the LPBank Ninh Binh women's volleyball team shared.
The value of foreign players
Vietnamese volleyball experts assess the reality that male and female foreign players coming to Vietnam to compete in the National Championship have 2 values: professional qualification and transfer costs. No official figures on foreign player transfer contracts to Vietnam have been revealed to the media, but currently, many teams have to spend hundreds of millions of dong or billions of dong to hire foreign players through each round.
In terms of expertise, many specific examples prove that the performance of foreign players is the decisive factor for the winning opportunity for the managing team. In last year's finals, the Women's Team of Binh Chung Thong Tin was very much expected by top foreign player Irina Voronkova (Russia) to achieve success. However, this well-known hitter did not leave a mark at the decisive moment, so the army team only ranked 3rd overall (expectedly, player Irina Voronkova did not participate in round 1 of the 2026 National Championship). Meanwhile, hitter Miroslava Paskova (Bulgaria) was not highly rated by experts but shone at the right time, thereby helping LPBank Ninh Binh team maintain the runner-up position overall. At the end of the tournament, Miroslava Paskova was voted the Best Attacking Female Player.
Also last year, foreign player Rivan (Indonesia) was a player who brought great professional value to help The Cong Tan Cang team play strongly to the final. Conversely, Michal Kubiak (Poland) was the leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Police team. Unfortunately, Kubiak suffered an injury at the decisive moment, so this team missed the ticket to the final to compete for the championship.
