If nothing changes,
German coach Falko Goetz will arrive in Hanoi in
the next few days to sign a contract to serve as coach of Vietnam’s national football squad.

Earlier, the coach
scheduled to come to Hanoi on May 6 with his
representative Andrea Milz, but the plan failed since Goetz could not quickly
get a visa to Vietnam.

Milz told Vietnam’s
Sports & Culture Newspaper on the phone on May 4, that Goetz and the
Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) had reached agreements on fundamental terms,
such as wages, contract duration, etc. The two sides will discuss some details
in the upcoming meeting in Hanoi
before signing the contract.

According to Milz,
the contract will be two years and it clearly points out the missions of the
new coach. The German coach will not have a probation period.

In related news,
VFF official met with a German agency in Vietnam. This agency has had
positive influences on the affair between Goetz and the VFF. In previous
meetings with VFF, this agency confirmed that if Goetz becomes coach of Vietnam’s
national male football team, it would assist VFF technically and financially.

Since the contract
between Goetz and VFF is not signed yet, some are lobbying for Bulgarian coach . However, VFF Chair Nguyen Trong Hy denied the lobby.

Bulgarian Hristo
Stoichkov will not be a head coach of the Vietnamese national football team and
he has never discussed the job with Vietnam Football Federation, confirmed by Hy
on May 3.

According to Hy,
Mr. Stoichkov had a talk with VFF officials last week for a business project of
his friend, a Bulgarian billionaire and owner of the infrastructure
construction corporation Nove Holding, based in Bulgaria
and bidding to operate several projects in Vietnam.

Regarding the news
that Nove Holding will sponsor the entire salary for the coach – around US$1
million a year, Hy said, “it has never existed story that something is given
away for nothing. And Mr. Stoichkov has never been shortlisted by the VFF to
coach national sides”.

VFF was supposed to
announce who would become the national coach on April 15 but has been delaying
the decision since.

Earlier, VFF had
shortlisted five top candidates out of 40 candidates in the final selection
round: they are Juergen Gede and Falko Goetz from Germany,
Pierre Lechantre (France),
Steve Sampson (US) and Eduardo Martinho Viganda (Portugal).

Pierre Lechantre
and Steve Sampson have been judged most competent, but they demanded a high
salary. VFF turned them down.

German’s Falko
Goetz, 49, is described as a qualified coach who introduces a coaching style
that suits Vietnamese football. In addition, he suggests an acceptable salary
rate.

The seat of Vietnam’s
coach has been left empty since early March after the resignation of Portuguese
coach Henrique Calisto, who had cited unfair public criticism by Vietnamese
media against him and his men after their failure at the 2010 Suzuki Cup as the
main reason.

PV