Vietnam’s top striker Le Cong Vinh will play for Portugal’s topflight Super Liga club Leixoes from September 1 to December 31, his VLeague club T&T Hanoi has said.

Vinh was recommended by Vietnam’s national football team coach Henrique Calisto, from Portugal. Leixoes came in sixth place last season.

V-League has three more rounds to go and T&T Hanoi is supportive of the decision as will it allow Vinh to retain his form while V-League is off until the beginning of next season.

As agreed by the two clubs, Vinh can return to play for Vietnam against Syria on November 14 and 18 in the 2011 Asian qualifying round.

The two clubs will also jointly establish a fund to seek out talented players from Brazil, Argentina and Portugal as well as to create opportunities for Vietnamese players to train and play abroad.

Vinh says he is now concentrating on his final three matches, aiming to help T&T Hanoi hold on to their current second spot in the table as well as winning the best scorer title himself.

Vinh has scored 14 goals, just behind Lazaro of Fourth Military Zone and Gaston Melo of newly crowned Da Nang, both of whom have scored 15 goals.

Reported by Xuan Lam