Lamine Yamal is in the age of 17 that in Vietnam, it is "broken buffalo horn". At the age that should have been surprised with the professional playground, Barcelona's boy made a bold impression in La Liga, Champions League and even in the color of the Spanish team. In fact, the Catalanian player has stands out last year, at the Euro that the Spanish championship and many people call him a "innate talent".
Talent is a given, even a rare talent, but it should be remembered that behind Yamal is a system of systematic training, all the way from academies, clubs to national strategies for youth football development.
From Yamal's story looking at Vietnamese football, a positive signal has just been lit up when the U17 team made its mark in recent international tournaments. Those 16 and 17-year-old new players show that Vietnamese football is not lacking in talent. The remaining question is whether we dare to give them a chance, be patient with them or not.
Investing in youth football cannot be a beautiful slogan on forums and in meetings. It is also impossible to leave it to a few centers or clubs that are doing very well at the moment. Football is only stable when there is a broad and deep foundation, starting from youth selection and training. But until now, the selection is still often limited (in localities, centers) and not widely spread. And to have a wide range, school football is an important foundation - something that has been proven by Japanese football.
To train, we must first find talent. That means that the system of tournaments for students nationwide, even from "famous" football fields, needs to be organized systematically and widely. The problem is, does Vietnamese football "dark" to do like the Japanese?
Today's U17 Vietnam generation is proof that if invested in the right direction, Vietnamese youth football can go far. But to avoid having to wait for a ripe rice season and then fading away, need a long-term strategy, a true belief in the young generation, factors that some may consider Yamal an idol.
