VietNamNet Bridge - Chairman Vo Quoc Thang of the Vietnam Professional Football JSC (VPF) said that next year, J-League will likely allow each club to register one Vietnamese player, who is not considered as a foreign player. This is the good news for many players of the Vietnam U19 football team.

The U19 team.

Thang has good relations with officials of the Japan’s J-League. In the role of VPF Chair, the company managing professional football leagues in Vietnam, Thang has several times expressed his desire to develop the V-League in the form of the J-League.

Just back from Japan, Thang said J-League is considering allowing each FC of this league to register a Vietnamese player, but not being considered as a foreign one.

This may be something many FCs in Vietnam do not care since most of Vietnamese players cannot meet the professional requirements of the J-League (Vietnam’s top player Le Cong Vinh is playing for a Japanese FC of the lower class). The majority of Vietnamese FCs will also not care because they even do not have enough good players for their own teams.

Photo: Playing at the J- League will be a good opportunity for Vietnam U19 players.

Even so, some FCs and young players can be very interested in this information. It’s Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc, the owner of Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) FC and players of the Vietnam U19 national team, who are also students of the HAGL – Arsenal JMG Football Academy.

Six years ago, when he established this academy, Duc said that his priority is to send players abroad, to play for foreign teams.

The level of the players in the HAGL – Arsenal JMG academy, particularly those playing for the national U19 squad is good, but it is hard to say that they are strong enough to rock professional leagues in Europe or to join Arsenal FC when they mature. The top Asian leagues are probably more suitable for these players, especially the J-League.

If the J-League sets rules to allow each club to register one Vietnamese player as a domestic one, then it will be a great opportunity for young soccer talents of Vietnam.

Thanks to this regulation, the chance of Vietnam players in Japanese FCs will be higher because they will not have to compete with other foreign players in Japanese FCs.

It may be a little early to talk about the future of Vietnam U19 players, with students from the HAGL–Arsenal JMG football academy as the core but at present, they show great potential.

U19 Vietnam recently defeated Australia U19 in the U19 Asian Champs qualifier round. This is a very different generation compared to other generation of young players that Vietnam has ever had and it is expected that they will impress international experts at the upcoming international tournaments so that they can properly be "exported", based on their talent, not because of commerce or promotional purposes.

Playing at the J-League is a goal for the players in the U19 Vietnam team since it is a good environment for professional and style development.

S. Tu