Vietnamese Football Viewed from Indonesia and Singapore

While neighboring football federations like Singapore and Indonesia continuously announce multi-million dollar investments to rebuild or develop their football foundations, fans are awaiting similar actions from those responsible for managing Vietnamese football.

Over 20 years ago, Singapore achieved brilliant success with a "shortcut" strategy by importing players, bringing home early ASEAN Cup championships. However, when the naturalized generation passed its peak, the Lion Island's football nearly vanished from regional competitions. This vivid lesson shows: Without an internal foundation, all borrowing is only temporary.

Conversely, Indonesia is emerging as a genuine force, not only in the region but also reaching continental stature. Three consecutive victories over Vietnam recently are solid proof of their strength. If not careless at decisive moments, the Indonesian national team might have already secured a ticket to the 2026 World Cup.

The common point for both Singapore and Indonesia at this moment is the uniformity in their plans to upgrade competitive capabilities, starting from abundant financial potential and substantive actions.

Returning to Vietnamese football. Most national teams currently still benefit from investments by clubs. The appearance of Vietnamese diaspora players and naturalized talents like Xuân Son, Đỗ Hoàng Hên (Hendrio), or veteran names like Đặng Văn Lâm, Filip Nguyễn has somewhat enhanced competitive capacity. Yet, to affirm our position in a harsh "battlefield" like the AFC Asian Cup 2027 finals in Saudi Arabia, we need more than that.

The question arises: When regional rivals have invested heavily and set specific goals, what are we doing? Over the years, Vietnamese football has harvested many successes at national team, club, and youth training levels, exemplified by the outstanding achievements of the Vietnam U23 team in 2025 and early 2026, but that alone is insufficient for the World Cup dream.

Looking back at the "Vision 2030" plan with the target of entering the Top 10 strongest football nations in Asia, that now seems to have become unfeasible. There is a huge gap between once reaching the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup and maintaining stability among the continent's top 10 teams.

History indicates that from the 2007 Asian Cup to the 2019 Asian Cup was a 12-year journey spanning 4-5 generations of players. If in 2007 we entered the quarter-finals as co-hosts, then 2019 was the fruit of a talented generation reaching maturity under the shaping hands of Coach Park Hang Seo.

The core issue of Vietnamese football today is the need for a long-term strategy and sponsors who are truly committed, visionary, and passionate about football. Only when Vietnamese football at all levels receives long-term and stable support from the entire society will the dream of reaching higher levels not just remain a dream but have the opportunity to become reality.