The match between the Vietnamese women's team and the Japanese women's team in Uzbekistan on the afternoon of November 1 was also the final high-profile match in the illustrious coaching career of Mr. Mai Duc Chung. That evening, from Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Coach Mai Duc Chung had an interview with Dan Tri reporters.
Coach Mai Duc Chung officially leaves Vietnamese football (Photo: VFF).
The Last Day of Memories
What is the first thing you will do after the last match of your career on the afternoon of November 1st, sir?
- I left the field early, earlier than the rest of the team. I went back to the hotel first, sat alone, reminiscing about old memories, reminiscing about my own past. Before that, my students shared their feelings with me, they gave me gifts. A gift with a lot of spiritual meaning.
It was a jersey with all the signatures of the members of the Vietnam women's team. Thinking back, the most precious thing in my football career is the love that everyone has for me.
After the match on the afternoon of November 1, after leaving the Vietnamese women's team, will you quit completely or will you have another job, somewhere else?
- I've retired. It's time for me to retire, I'm too old (Coach Mai Duc Chung is 72 years old this year). I regret having to say goodbye to a job that I've been attached to for almost my whole life. The decision to quit, for me, is not easy. But no matter how much I regret it, this day will come sooner or later.
I should have quit last year, but the guys at the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) convinced me to stay, and the players on the national team also wanted me to stay. They told me to try for another year, the year of the Women's World Cup. So I tried, also to complete my career.
Now, I want to retire, to make up for the time I spent away from my family for almost my entire life. As you know, my children are grown, have their own families, and live on their own. My wife has therefore always stayed home alone to look after the house. Now that I am retired, I have time to take my wife on trips here and there.
My wife sacrifices a lot for me. She rarely gets to travel, not even within the country, let alone abroad. I quit to spend time with her, take her on trips.
Coach Mai Duc Chung decided to step back behind the scenes to spend time with his family (Photo: Manh Quan).
The genius of Vietnamese football
Returning to coaching, you have been successful at both club and national team levels, with both men's and women's football. That is rare on a global scale, not just in Vietnamese football. Do you have any secrets?
- No! I don't have any secret, I just work and work. I work hard, always telling myself to try a little harder, for my work and for the people around me. When I work, I don't know if the work will be successful or not. I just try my best to do my job.
I always keep in mind that I am just a small grain of sand in this life, I am a small grain of sand in the whole of Vietnamese football. I simply want to contribute a hand to the overall development of Vietnamese football.
Is there a coach Mai Duc Chung who dares to rush into places that few people dare to rush into, dares to lead teams that few people dare to lead, or dares to take on responsibilities that many people want to avoid, is that the difference that makes a coach Mai Duc Chung more successful than others?
- In that regard, sometimes my colleagues and friends told me that I was foolish. For example, in 2017, when I took on the responsibility of being the interim coach of the Vietnam men's football team, Mr. Le Thuy Hai (the late coach Le Thuy Hai) told me that I was foolish, that if the team was successful, people would forget me quickly. If the team failed, I would be the target of public criticism.
Coach Mai Duc Chung made history when he led Vietnam's women's football team to the 2023 World Cup (Photo: AP).
He gave me sincere and honest advice. That year, Vietnamese football had just failed at the SEA Games, and no coach wanted to replace coach Nguyen Huu Thang to lead the team.
Even that year, many people felt that the Vietnamese team was about to lose to Cambodia in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers. The then VFF President, Mr. Le Hung Dung, when calling me, admitted that he had called many people before, but they all refused. He told me that he was very embarrassed to invite me in such a situation.
I myself thought that the head of the Vietnam Football Federation could not have opened his heart to me like that, if I refused to accept the team, it would be difficult for him. Besides, everyone had left the team, if I left too, where would the team go? So I accepted the Vietnam team. Luckily, the team won both matches under my tenure, overcoming the most difficult time.
Coach Mai Duc Chung is constantly concerned about national football (Photo: AP).
Forever passionate about Vietnamese football
Compared to many others, success seems to come to you later, but when success comes, it comes to you continuously and very sustainably?
- Honestly, sometimes I feel very sad. I see my peers (coaches Le Thuy and Vuong Tien Dung are the same age as coach Mai Duc Chung) have achievements, all brilliant achievements, but I don't have any, sometimes I feel terribly sad. But I don't give up.
Even my work with women's football was not smooth sailing, it also went through a very difficult period at the beginning. Many good coaches did not want to work in women's football. But if I had given up, I would not have given up just because it was difficult. Maybe I was lucky that things gradually got better.
Anyone who follows women's football has seen it, and I have seen it myself, women's football has no audience. Most of the matches in the national championship have only a few people watching, it's so sad.
But the more it is like that, the more I want to overcome difficulties with Vietnamese women's football. I tell myself that I have to be on the women's team, have to achieve results to attract the attention of the audience.
So at the time when you were forced to stop your work due to age, did you have any concerns about Vietnamese women's football?
- I hope Vietnamese women's football will develop more deeply and widely, with more teams and more people playing women's football. More people and more teams will participate in women's football, the selection of talent for Vietnamese women's football will be wider, and it will be easier to find talented players.
I hope that women's football will be more strongly socialized, with more businesses participating in the development of women's football, and more localities paying more attention. I dream that one day each men's football club in the V-League will have a women's football team invested in parallel, like in Europe and other developed football countries.
In the Olympic qualifiers these past few days, the international football community asked me how many women's teams are in the national championship in Vietnam? I said there are a total of 6 teams, of which only 4 provide players for the national team, everyone was surprised. With so many teams for the entire football industry and still having a team in the World Cup, it is truly rare.
I asked again what their football background was like. They said they had about a dozen top division teams, and then each lower division had a dozen or more teams. That's how it has to be for long-term development.
I hope Vietnamese football can be like that. Everyone must roll up their sleeves and work hard, and don't make quick money in football. I always follow the movement and am always passionate about Vietnamese football.
Thank you and I wish you happiness with your family!
About Coach Mai Duc Chung
Coach Mai Duc Chung was born on June 21, 1951. As a player, Mr. Chung won the national championship in 1980 with the General Department of Railways team. Mr. Chung played for the national team from 1981 to 1984.
After retiring from his playing career, Mr. Chung began his coaching career in 1984, starting with the youth team of the General Department of Railways. Mr. Chung first took charge of the Vietnamese women's team in 1997. Coach Mai Duc Chung first took charge of the Vietnamese men's football team in 2017.
Coach Mai Duc Chung won the V-League in 2015 with Binh Duong, won the National Cup in 2011 with Navibank Saigon Club, and won the Merdeka Cup in 2008 with the Vietnam U22 team.
With the Vietnamese women's football team, coach Mai Duc Chung has won the SEA Games 6 times (2003, 2005, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023), won the Southeast Asian championship once in 2019, reached the semi-finals of the 2014 Asian Games, and reached the finals of the 2023 World Cup.
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