French wine recipe brings new philosophy to Vietnam team

Philippe Troussier loves France. He was born in Paris, the capital of the hexagonal country. The ego of a country that is inherently described by the romanticism, the flightiness, the love of discovery, the love of adventure of the French, especially the generation that grew up in the 40s and 50s of the 20th century, is clearly present in this military leader.

"Please call me by my name"

Coach Troussier sent this message to his fans. Those who work with this coach often call him by his first name Philippe (Philip, not Phi-lip-pe). His last name, except perhaps his assistants, is rarely pronounced correctly. Fans and reporters are used to reading the Tr sound in Vietnamese style.

The name of the head coach of the Vietnam team is "Philip Thu-xi-ê", not "Trâu-di-ê" or "Tru-di-ê". Because that is the correct pronunciation for his last name, his family's, a clan in Paris. Wherever he goes, Troussier never forgets his roots, a family of 5 siblings in which he is the eldest, a standard education in which his parents always trust him to look after and care for his younger siblings.

Perhaps that is why Troussier always believes that fate has shaped him in terms of educating the next generations. Football is the way for him to do that.

Mr. Troussier has not forgotten to keep a typical origin of the Southwest of France. That is wine. Troussier's adventure began 40 years ago, across many continents and countries. But, there is one thing that he has never changed. That is bringing bottles of wine produced by himself, from the very garden he inherited in Bordeaux.

Wine is not simply a business for Coach Troussier. It is his way of spreading French culture in every land he “travels”. Wine is the source of a meal, a relationship. For Mr. Troussier, meeting new people and visiting new lands is an endless passion!

The French coach's perspective and approach to football are the same. This coach gives his students bottles of wine, which is actually a metaphor for the lessons and new things about culture and football that he can introduce to them.

Football is like wine making.

Troussier considers wine and football to be inseparable, with similar processes. That is why he named his wine line after his favorite formation, 3-4-3. In a recent interview with the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), Coach Troussier spoke passionately about it, about the wine-making process and how to build a strong team.

The students were given wine by coach Troussier.

He shared: “ Every football team is a combination of individual players, with different personalities, different ages. Now we compare it to wine, wine comes from different sources, different lands and different grapes.

And so we have young players, mature players, some of them are big and some of them are small in stature. And as a national team coach, as a winemaker, I think there are similarities in terms of progression.

With football, the goal is to get individual, independent players working together. With wine, I want to use different grapes to make the best wine. For that, I need time with football, just like grapes, it takes about a year to age. I need my team, I need doctors, I need physiotherapists, I need goalkeeper coaches and assistant coaches, video assistants. Just like winemaking, I need the support of a team to create the desired wine .”

The French coach continues his journey in Vietnam.

Coach Troussier believes that to get results, patience is necessary. And along with that comes the willingness to take risks. “ We don’t know exactly what the results will be. That’s part of the mystery. It can depend on many objective factors.

In football, we can suffer injuries, be disadvantaged by referee decisions, bad pitches, or just not be in good shape. Likewise with wine, we can have a bad harvest, such as rain, cold, frost… and many other issues that can affect the result. That’s why I think both fields are similar.

Even though I'm not a professional winemaker, I still try to manage with the progress I have, just like I'm doing as the head coach of the national team."

He believes that being a coach, whether in football or winemaking, is as much about creating a cohesive team as it is about making a good wine.

“ Similar to the way the best wine is made with ripe grapes, in football, experienced players also have their own role. I prefer to call them mature, experienced players rather than old. Because young players, if exposed early, also accumulate a lot of experience in top football ,” Troussier contemplated.

Xuan Phuong

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