Cong Phuong and Thanh Thuy
Cong Phuong ended his contract early with Yokohama FC in Japan and Tran Thi Thanh Thuy will stop her journey with Kuzeyboru in Türkiye.
At this time, Cong Phuong returned to Vietnam, playing in the First Division of domestic football. The striker himself once confirmed that the most important thing was to play to demonstrate his ability. Cong Phuong has effectively reintegrated into domestic football now. When he was in Japan, the striker from Nghe An was rarely allowed to play by the Yokohama FC coaching staff.
If nothing changes, Tran Thi Thanh Thuy will return home this weekend. Thanh Thuy has been in the Turkish Women's Volleyball National Championship since September 2024, but the opportunity for this player to play is limited. At the same time, the high professional requirements, the player must meet to compete at the best performance is something that the Kuzeyboru coaching staff has not seen in Thanh Thuy, so her contract will soon end.
Before Thanh Thuy came to Turkish volleyball, there were many questions about whether Vietnam's number one striker needed a trial or was officially signed to compete. In fact, Thanh Thuy was registered by Kuzeyboru in the official list of 14 players participating in the Turkish national volleyball championship, but our striker did not show much.
Some opinions of volleyball experts shared very frankly that Thanh Thuy had prepared herself mentally for success or failure when coming to Türkiye. She and her team and their representative directly understood the main reason why Kuzeyboru team terminated the contract early even though it was still valid until May 2025. Thanh Thuy still wanted to try her hand in the professional volleyball environment outside of Vietnam and after not being successful with Kuzeyboru, it is likely that this player will find an opportunity to compete in a tournament in the Asian region.
No journey makes no path.
Cong Phuong and Thanh Thuy are both players with good professional skills compared to their peers in Vietnam in the sport they are practicing and competing in. However, at each level of professional competition in tournaments outside of Vietnam, they are not outstanding players. Thanh Thuy is considered to have the ability to compete effectively thanks to her good height (1m93) and her thoughtful play.
However, in tournaments in Asia and Europe, there are many players like ours who can compete. Because they are not outstanding, Vietnamese athletes are completely at risk of being replaced. That is professional sports. Vietnamese players or any athlete understands this clearly.
However, volleyball itself is actively looking for opportunities for players to go abroad to start a career and develop their skills. Vietnamese female volleyball players have more potential than male players. The problem is that each team must have a long-term development strategy to have opportunities for their players to go abroad. In some of its working programs, the VTV Binh Dien Long An women's team (Thanh Thuy's parent company before she went to Turkey to compete) has created the best conditions for Tran Thi Thanh Thuy to go abroad to play soccer.
Through research, this team has connections with a number of professional partners and in the near future, it is not excluded that VTV Binh Dien Long An players will have many opportunities to compete at PFU Blue Cats (Japan) in the future. The Binh Phuoc School of Information Corps Women's Team is a strategic partner in volleyball with the Supreme TIP (Dhiphaya) Chonburi-E.Tech (Thailand) team.
In the cooperation between the two sides, players of the teams will have the opportunity to go to Thailand or Vietnam to play football. The first step of that cooperation is that the army team had Doan Thi Lam Oanh and Hoang Thi Kieu Trinh go to Thailand to play and vice versa, two Thai players went to Vietnam. When working with the Thai partner, the representative of the army team shared that the primary goal is long-term professional development, not seasonal, so the teams have a very important cooperation plan with each other.
In April 2024, the Duc Giang Lao Cai Chemical women's team also sent its players to Korea for a trial through its connections. Although the players were not successful, it was the beginning for the players to see that if they have professional skills, they have enough opportunities to develop abroad.
