The young trainees at Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) -Arsenal JMG Academy practice with bare feet at their Ham Rong headquarters in Pleiku Town

Good cooking and expert training have made talented footballers out of 16 young hopefuls who joined the Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Arsenal JMG Academy when it opened two years ago.

100 weeks on

A few days ago I traveled to the academy in the Ham Rong Sports Area in Gia Lai Province’s Pleiku Town to see how the boys were doing 100 weeks on.

When the course began, the 18 boys selected were thin and short, making many people question the lofty aims of the founders and managers of the academy.

It was a beautiful day in the Highlands town when I arrived - the training center was quiet as the trainees were at a secondary high school in Pleiku Town. The lawn at the academy was green and lush. It looked so inviting that I wanted to lie down for a rest after the 500km road journey from Ho Chi Minh City.

A bus collected the boys from school at about 11:20 a.m. They changed out of their school uniforms into shorts and shirts to be on time for a football training session at 11:30 a.m. with trainers, Frenchman Graechen Guillaume and HAGL’s veteran Duong Minh Ninh.

The two who dropped out of the original class, Le Pham Thanh Long and Nguyen Van Anh had not developed well physically and were moved to HAGL’s young talented team also trained by a Frenchman and a young Vietnamese instructor, Dinh Hong Vinh.

Straight away it was obvious how much the trainees had grown since they began training. Le Van Vu, now 14, from the central coastal Phu Yen Province stands 1.6 meters tall. He has grown 18 centimeters since he joined the academy.

It’s all because of the managers’ training plan. Knowing the Vietnamese boys needed to be beefed up, the managers gave priority to nutrition. The young trainees have five meals a day that are designed by dietary experts.

Training with bare feet

At training, the boys were very skillful for their age and could make powerful accurate kicks. Most of them are 14 years old or under, but they can make driving shots some 20 meters from goal and keep the ball in the air for hours even while they run.

They must train with bare feet for the first three years to help them kick the ball accurately, but they play in U15 national competitions where boys in the other teams wear shoes.

Sometimes, the academy invites other U15 teams from neighboring provinces of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Dak Lak to have friendly matches as practice sessions.

The academy players are usually superior to the visitors in terms of one-two combinations, ball control and field positioning.

HAGL technical director Nguyen Van Vinh said, “I am surprised to see them play. At 14 or under they have good strategic minds. I believe they will be able to play in Vietnam’s top-flight V-League and other tournaments after seven years of hard work.”

Trainer Guillaume said, “I can’t say how good these players will be when they are transferred after seven years of training here, because a lot of things could happen. However, I am very pleased as they are intelligent and developing well. With the improvement they have made, the academy passed the yearly test by JMG’s Management Board.”

Order and discipline

For young boys, the trainees are very tidy and hard working. They’re good at their studies, go to school at 6 a.m. and come back at 11:20 a.m. They practice football from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m., have lunch and rest, then practice again from 15:30 untill 17:30 p.m. They learn English on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and English on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings. They are free to use their imagination and creativity on Sunday.

On each student’s desk, there is a proverb, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” By their bed, there is a list of promises they’ve made. They must not tell lies, steal or cheat.

The football class showed a lot of respect to older people, either new or familiar to them.

Speaking to Thanh Nien, trainee Nguyen Van Toan from northern Hai Duong Province said, “I like Vietnam’s national team and the nation’s number one striker Le Cong Vinh. I also like Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United. We all hope one day we will play at stadiums full of spectators.”

Reported by Quang Huy