Nobody, including Le Van Dang himself, knows for sure if he scored 10 or 11 goals at the first A1 National Football Championships (currently the topflight V-League) almost three decades ago.

The information is not with the Vietnam Football Federation either.

But one thing Dang’s friends are all sure about is that he scored the opener of the tournament, helping Cong An Hanoi (Hanoi Police) to a 4-0 win over Saigon Port.

Dang, now 62, says, “They can remember that detail because it was on February 3, 1980. It was a chilly day and the Saigon Port players from the south were shaking all the time, unable to stop the attacks from Cong An Hanoi.”

The last goal of that season was also scored by Dang with a header to pull one goal back for Cong An Hanoi as his team lost 1-2 to Tong Cuc Duong Sat (The General Railway Department) in the finals.

That year, his team came in second place but Dang was the top striker and leading scorer. Cong An Hanoi took third place in the A1 National Championship the next year.

However, Dang, who was in the national squad that played in the Soviet Union in 1980, made a big contribution to his team winning the A1 championship in 1984.

That was the second championship he won with Cong An Hanoi after the team took the North Vietnam championship in 1969.

Lefty striker Dang is still remembered as one of the best strikers of the seventies and early eighties.

He was nicknamed “the toad” because of the big leaps he made while playing.

Adversity

At 19, Dang was on the Thanh Nien (Youth) Hanoi team playing with other young teammates in the North Vietnam championship against big teams like Xi Mang Hai Phong, Tong Cuc Duong Sat, Cong An Hanoi and The Cong.

The blow came out of the blue. “In late 1968 and early 1969, I was training in Hungary when I received the news that my team Thanh Nien Hanoi had been dissolved. I was shaken, but tried to focus on training.”

Fortunately, his talent was in demand. “Later I received the good news that four other teammates and I had been selected by Cong An Hanoi. Together with big names in the new squad, we won the North Vietnam championship that year.”

Talking about football in the north, Dang says, “In those years, Hanoi had several big stars. People often talked about “the five stars” including Ba Den (The Anh), Duy Phu, Viet Cau, Van Chi and me (Dang – the toad).”

He was on the North Vietnam squad from 1969-1971. They played teams from China, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Dang, who retired in 1986, said, “I should have retired right after I won the A1 national championship with Cong An Hanoi in 1984.

“But the team didn’t have enough players of the next generation, so I delayed retiring by two years.”

Later he coached Quang Ninh’s women’s football team and then the U17 national team. Yet he was not successful as a coach.

Nearly a decade and a half after his retirement, Dang continues to play football. He lives in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung District and plays for the Hanoi veterans club.

Reported by Thanh Luong