VietNamNet Bridge – Dong Thap would seek former Thai national team coach Chanvit Phalajivin for the national football championship, V-League, next year, team manager Le Ngoc Chuc said.

Former Thai national team coach Chanvit Phalajivin. (Photo: TN)

Chanvit, who guided Thailand to win the gold medal at the 23rd SEA Games in Manila in 2005, retired from the Thai team after the 2010 World Cup qualifier.

The 52-year-old coach, who was a lecturer at the Asian Football Confederation in Viet Nam in 2000, turned down an offer from Dong Thap last year before signing with the Thailand Football Association.

Dong Thap first approached Chanvit at the 2005 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, and in 2006 Dong Thap offered Chanvit the coaching position just after he helped Thailand win the International Football tournament-Agribank Cup (now the T&T Cup) in Viet Nam.

Dong Thap have won the national title twice, in 1989 and 1996.

Chanvit helped Thailand beat Viet Nam 2-0 in the first leg of the semi-finals of the ASEAN Football Championship, or AFF Cup, in Ha Noi’s My Dinh Stadium in 2006. The second leg ended in a goalless draw in Bangkok. However, Chanvit’s team lost to Singapore 3-2 in the final.

In the V-League, which will kick off in February, Binh Duong and Hai Phong Cement also signed contracts with Portuguese Francisco Vital and Austrian Alfred Riedl. Hoang Anh Gia Lai inked a contract with Thailand’s Dusit Chalermsan.

(Source: Viet Nam News)