Ahead of the 2018 AFF Cup final return leg this weekend, Vietnam coach Park Hang-seo received good news as he was named among the 12 winners of the “Persons of the Year 2018 Awards” by the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK).




The annual awards which was held in Seoul on December 12, aim to honour typical people who have brought pride to the Republic of Korea (RoK) over the past year.

Park has been recognised for his significant contributions to Vietnamese football, which have helped to further advertise the image of the RoK country and its people, as well as bringing the RoK-Vietnam relations to new heights.

After more than a year of working in the Southeast Asian country, the 59-year-old tactician has produced constant miracles for Vietnamese football, bringing Vietnam U23s to the final match of the 2018 AFC Championship and leading the Vietnam Olympic team to the Asian Games semifinals. In addition, Park and his Vietnamese players now have the upper hand to win the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup trophy against Malaysia.

The RoK media have closely followed and covered the footsteps of Park and his Vietnamese teams. Even SBS TV, operated by the Seoul Broadcasting System, has bought the broadcast rights of Vietnamese matches at the 2018 AFF Cup in order to serve local demand.

The Journalists Association of Korea (JAK) is the largest organisation of professional journalists in the RoK with a current membership of over 10,000 journalists working for the nation's newspaper companies, broadcasting services, Internet news, and news agencies.

Nhan Dan