VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF)
has set the limit of the number of foreign players that clubs are allowed to
use at the V-League and First Division tournaments. Football clubs, thus, are
racing to recruit foreign players who proved good before V-League 2011 opens on
January 22.

At this
moment, all the “stars” of V-League 2010 - Leandro de Oliveira (Brazil), Samson (Nigeria), Timothy, Huynh Kesley
Alves, Phan Van Santos, etc. – have their ideal destinations with lavish
contracts.

Leandro
left Hai Phong to join Binh Duong club with transfer fee of around
$200,000/season and a monthly salary of $20,000.

Nigerian
striker Samson may say goodbye to Dong Thap to play for T&T Hanoi, with a transfer
fee of at least $100,000/season and high salary.

Hoa Phat
Hanoi will recruit African striker Timothy again, paying him a higher salary
and a bonus.

Xuan Thanh
Saigon, a new name, has attracted public attention after purchasing several
football stars, including Huynh Kesley. Thie club has to pay $1 million for
Kesley’s three-year contract and a very high salary.

Goal-keeper
Phan Van Santos earns hundreds of thousands of US dollars after leaving Ninh
Binh to Navibank Saigon.

Experts
said that the quality of foreign players does not match their salaries.
However, since there is excessive demand on the football market , the transfer
fees are very high.

To achieve
their ambition at V-League 2011, some clubs have given up the policy of
training young players to instead, purchase foreign players.

Many new
foreign players will join V-League 2011. Most of them are members of African
national teams or those who played for some tournaments in Europe.

Halfback
Andy, a new face at Ninh Binh club, is introduced to have played for the
Nigerian national squad for five years for some clubs in Germany before he came to Vietnam.

Hoa Phat
Han has a striker who was a member of the Ugandan national team. Hanoi ACB
recruits striker Lucas, who played at Serie B. Hoang Anh Gia Lai has Allan
Wanga from the national team of Kenya.

However,
the most outstanding player is striker Obinna, who played for Olympiakos (Greece). It is
said that Binh Duong paid nearly $1 million to have Obinna. With the new
striker, Lee Nguyen, Leandro and Philani, Binh Duong is considered to have the
best foreign players in Vietnam.

Shortage of good goalkeepers

The training
programs for the young generation of goalkeepers in Vietnam has been limited,
especially in the last ten years, and as a result, first choice keepers of
Vietnamese national teams have failed to draw confidence among fans.

clubs from
the central region as Binh Dinh, Danang and Nghe An created trademark in
training famous goalkeepers Truong Van Loi, Nguyen Van Cuong, Vo Van Hanh and
Tran Minh Quang in 1990s, but currently no young names are able to replace
them.

High-profile
errors by keepers Duong Hong Son and Bui Tan Truong at the 2010 Suzuki Cup in
December 2010 which threatened the national squad with an early exit already alarmed
Vietnam.

In the past
10 years, Vietnam
together with the Asian Football Confederation
held dozens of courses for coaches but none for goalkeeping coaches.

“For
Olympic teams in Vietnam,
positions in the attacking and midfield lines draw more attention than that for
goalkeeper,” said Nguyen Van Phung, goalkeeping coach and former international
keeper.

Few local
keepers are taller than 1.8m, meanwhile the height, which is a disadvantage of
Vietnamese footballers at international competition, is one of top requirements
for a qualified keeper, he added.

To tackle
the scarcity, most clubs now field a first choice goalkeeper from overseas,
including the arrival of foreign players as Brazilian-born Fabio Santos, Michal
Syhavy from Ukraine, Filip
Madzovski from Macedonia.

But it
seems that they are doing more harm to Vietnamese football rather than helping
the sport.

Among a
total of 12 teams playing Vietnam’s
top-tier V-League in last season, six of them employ foreign keepers.

The
shortage of local goalkeepers is a big concern for the Vietnam Football
Federation in improving the achievements for the national side at international
arena.

Source: Tuoi
Tre/NLD