Many V-League teams struggle with foreign players

DOMESTIC SOLDIERS CARRY FOREIGN SOLDIERS

The quality of foreign players has a significant impact on the performance of V-League teams, from competing for the championship to fighting for relegation. Nam Dinh Club's 2023-2024 championship is an example. Despite conceding the fourth most goals in the tournament, coach Vu Hong Viet's team still won the title with 60 goals, of which "double-barreled guns" Nguyen Xuan Son and Hendrio Araujo scored a total of 41 goals.

Hanoi FC dominated the V-League in the 2016 - 2022 period with 4 championships thanks to the domestic players wearing the Vietnamese national team jersey, but it is undeniable that the abundant source of goals from foreign (or naturalized) strikers such as Pape Omar Faye, Oseni, Hoang Vu Samson. Or Binh Duong (Huynh Kesley Alves, Philani, Phan Van Santos), Da Nang (Gaston Merlo, Nguyen Rogerio, Almeida), The Cong Viettel (Bruno Cunha, Venecio Caique) were also crowned kings in the V-League thanks to quality foreign players.

Wellington Nem (Binh Duong Club) was assessed to have played poorly and was not physically fit enough.

Even a team without such great potential as Hai Phong FC also competed for the championship in the 2016 and 2022 seasons thanks to two factors: good foreign players (Errol Stevens, Diego Fagan, Rimario Gordon, Joseph Mpande) and a playing style that suits the players' abilities. On the other hand, a team without good foreign players can still rise if the domestic players are good enough, but it is very difficult. Last season, The Cong Viettel owned many national players such as Nguyen Hoang Duc, Nguyen Duc Chien, Bui Tien Dung, Nguyen Thanh Binh, Phan Tuan Tai, Truong Tien Anh. However, because the foreign players were too bad, coach Nguyen Duc Thang's team fell into the situation of accepting "Westerners", and then ended the season with defeat.

This season, the foreign player problem is recurring with some teams, including Hanoi FC. Coach Le Duc Tuan's team brought in 3 foreign players including Keziah Veendorp, Augustine Chidi Kwem, Joao Pedro, all of whom have added to the attack. However, since the beginning of the tournament, except for Pedro who scored 2 goals, striker Chidi Kwem, who is the highest-rated player in V-League (according to Transfermarkt), has only played 3 matches (total 150 minutes) and has not scored. Former Netherlands U.17 captain Veendorp was replaced after only a few weeks. Sharing the same concern with Hanoi FC is Binh Duong. Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan's team brought in Wellington Nem - a player who grew up at Fluminense and played alongside Neymar in the Brazilian national team. But after 5 rounds in V-League, Wellington has not found a place despite scoring and assisting. He only came on the bench, was judged to have played poorly and not been physically fit enough.

RISKY BET

Hanoi Police Club (CAHN) won 3-0 against home team Nam Dinh in round 5 to rise to the top 5 of V-League, thanks to the brilliance of Leo Artur. The Brazilian foreign player has scored 6 goals in the last 4 matches, helping coach Alexandre Polking's team to be unbeaten in 4 consecutive matches from V-League to Southeast Asian tournament.

Leo Artur and Alan Grafite were brought in by CAHN FC at the beginning of this season, after the duo played brilliantly, helping Binh Dinh FC finish second last season. Nam Dinh FC also had to "thank" Binh Dinh for helping them find Hendrio, thanks to which the team from the South had a quality "gun" in the midfield.

Both CAHN and Nam Dinh teams are leaning towards the path of using foreign players from other V-League teams, which is considered safer than the option of buying completely new foreign players (which Hanoi FC has done). Using foreign players who already have V-League experience means that the teams do not need to verify their quality much, nor do they need to wait for the foreign players to adapt to the climate, culture, and lifestyle in Vietnam. Bringing in foreign players who have never played in Vietnam is no different from gambling.

Hanoi FC is an example. The capital representative once succeeded with "reused" foreign players such as Samson, Oseni, Omar, Moses... However, after that, the Hanoi team switched to using new foreign stars. Like the 2022 season, this team brought in a series of Eastern European foreign players and failed completely. The 2023 and 2023 - 2024 seasons were also forgettable, when millions of USD were spent on 10 - 15 foreign players, but no one shone.

The common point of these foreign players is that they were advertised widely, had a brief trial (or no trial) before signing a contract. As in the case of Veendorp, he was pushed away before he could adapt, when the Hanoi team realized he did not have enough physical strength and skills. CAHN Club in the first season of being promoted to V-League also bought many new "Westerners" but failed, before switching back to the old strategy of using foreign players.

Strong potential teams like The Cong Viettel, Ha Noi, Binh Duong are ready to spend money to continuously replace foreign stars. However, "power because of rice" is one thing. Buying foreign players without a good source of players, plus sloppy scouting, failure is inevitable!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhieu-doi-v-league-loay-hoay-voi-ngoai-binh-185241029190057177.htm