When Vietnamese Football Doesn't Dare to Dream Big: Lessons from South Korea

One evening in Busan, I sat watching a K League match and remembered the times I ran podcasts talking about how Vietnamese players need to move abroad to learn. Many fans angrily replied. But today, standing in South Korea, I understand better why we keep staying in place. South Korea does not have born geniuses. They have a strict system that forces every young player to bike up a mountain every morning before playing. I have seen K League academies teach tactics from the age of ten. They analyze every run with video, teach ball control with both feet, and above all, they train the spirit to endure pressure. Vietnamese football is living in a comfort zone. We praise a striker who scores ten goals in the domestic league, but ignore that he cannot receive the ball in tight spaces at the continental level. Youth teams rarely play internationally because they fear losing. And when the 2026 World Cup qualifiers end, people again look for excuses like referees or weather. I am not saying Vietnamese people lack passion. The mistake is placing passion on temporary victories and forgetting that true passion must be fed by process. When Quang Hai moved to play in South Korea, I hoped he would succeed. But after a season, he returned home because he could not adapt to the speed and intensity. That is not an individual failure, but a warning for football. Some will say we do not have money. But I have known clubs like Ulsan that do not spend much on foreigners, yet still lead Asia by investing in data and fitness. They have a youth academy beside the stadium, and every week they send reports to coaches. In Vietnam, however, we prefer buying expensive attackers over building an analysis room. We prefer spectacular goals over passing statistics. Of course, I can be wrong. Maybe in ten years we will have an unexpected success. But if we do not change philosophy now, the next generation will face the same familiar criticisms. South Korea failed many times before rising. They learned, they waited, and they got Son Heung-min. Do we have the courage to build a real foundation, or will we keep wasting talent on weekend matches?