Well-paid local football stars are increasingly looking to the investment sector
as a way of supplementing their incomes.

The most recent sports
star to go into business is national Olympic team’s goalkeeper Bui Tan Truong,
who received VND5 billion (US$250,000) for an extended three-year contract with
V-League football club Dong Thap last year.

Truong, who is also a
senior national team keeper, invested more than VND1billion in a joint complex
of six artificial-turf pitches with Nguyen Ngoc Anh Tu, who works for a military
company.

The complex called Sai
Gon Football Club K2 is on Tran Van Du Street, Tan Binh District and has six
pitches for five-person games. Each pitch has 12 lights.

“Truong is a good
player and a well-behaved person. So I decided to ask him to join me in this
complex, which is worth about VND4 billion ($200,000),” Tu said, adding that he
will open a sports shop in the facility.

“I am a player, so
opening mini-artificial turf business is something I am familiar with,” said
Truong, who also is investing his money to open an internet shop for his wife
and buy a 16-seat Mercedes-Benz car for his brother.

“I am sometimes away
to play football and Tu will manage the business. We believe in each other.
After one week of operation, I feel optimistic about our success,” he said.

Moonlighting: National team goalie Bui Tan Truong (top) and his teammate Le Cong Vinh at a training session in Ha Noi. Both players have undertaken successful business ventures off the field. (Photos: VNS)

Although the complex
has only been open for a week during pre-Lunar New Year holidays, not a prime
time for his target customers, many youth visited the complex yesterday evening.

Truong is not the
first football star to use his earnings in this way.

Le Huynh Duc, national
team’s former striker and now coach of former V-League champion, SHB Da Nang,
has sports shops in HCM City and Da Nang.

However, star striker
Le Cong Vinh, who once opened a restaurant in Vinh Yen City of Vinh Phuc
Province with Ha Noi T&T teammate Duong Hong Son, said many players did not have
enough time to devote to management.

But he also pointed
that managing an artificial grass-turf business was not as difficult or
time-consuming.

Last year, the
National Olympic team player Pham Thanh Luong opened a cafe named Diva in Ha Noi
while the national team striker Nguyen Anh Duc did the same with a chain of
shops that sells sports equipment in Binh Duong Province and HCM City.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News