Coach Park wants more Vietnamese to play football overseas

“Many clubs in South Korea are interested in Vietnamese players. But in Vietnam, clubs are not willing to let their players go overseas so it’s difficult for them to make the move. In Japan and South Korea, if a player wants to go abroad, the clubs will make it easier for them to leave. I think this is something that we can learn from,” Park told the press Tuesday.

Park also discussed the goal of Vietnamese football to qualify for the 2030 World Cup.

“The problem is when we want to do something, we have to take a look at the current picture and how the system of Vietnamese football is being built, from the youth level and so on. We have to achieve synchronization and systemization in developing players and other important tasks,” he added.

The national head coach also stressed the importance of a suitable system for Vietnamese football in the long run.

“I have to see how the current generation of players is invested. We cannot achieve our goal if we don’t have a specific system. We need to see if the Vietnamese football system can meet international standards and reach its goal of World Cup qualification in 2030. When the system is stable, we can achieve our target. I think it’s stable at the moment but in the coming time we need to consider if the system has what it takes to achieve the goal,” he said.

During five years of working in Vietnam, Park extended his contract twice, in 2019 and 2021. But there won’t be a third time as Park announced he will leave after his contract expires on Jan. 31, 2023.

“When I extended my contract, I tried my best to complete it. I decided to stop a year ago but didn’t announce it until recently. I don’t know if I will stay in Vietnam or return to South Korea after this. But if there’s a new chapter, it will still be about football, because that’s all I know.”

The 2022 AFF Cup will be Park’s final tournament as Vietnam national head coach. The team will start training on Wednesday to prepare for the event.

Park became the head coach of Vietnam in late 2017. Since then, he has achieved continuous success with second place at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, the 2018 AFF Cup title, a place in the quarterfinal of the 2019 Asian Cup, two SEA Games gold medals in 2019 and 2021, and helped the team advance to the final qualifiers of World Cup for the first time in history.