Vietnam’s Park Hang-seo desires to upend his U-23 Duties

Vietnam’s reverent presence in Asian football has the whole football world watching. The 60-year-old’s South Korean coach is the head coach of the Vietnamese senior national team and the U-23 head coach. After a successful victory in the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup, Park Hang-seo has revealed that balancing the two coaching jobs have been a challenge and is ready to step down as the coach for the U-23 team.

Ahead of the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers, the 60-year-old spoke with YONHAP News Agency during his downtime in South Korea where he revealed his decision to give up the U-23 duties he was responsible for. “After a series of international tournaments, I felt tired, but we are off to a good start in 2019,” Park told reporters at the Incheon International Airport.

The coach responsible for the Suzuki Cup also said that he has informed other members of the Vietnam Football Federation regarding his situation. Nevertheless, Park is set to guide Vietnam against his home nation Korea Republic in the inaugural AFF-EAFF Champions Trophy. It’s a football event at its first edition of a biennial exhibition match between the winners of the AFF Suzuki Cup and EAFFE E-1 Football Championship.

“Vietnam doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to face teams like South Korea. Playing a match against South Korea already gives us a big experience.” Park adds. He also goes on to say that the VFF will have to find ways to invest more in their young players as early as now. Those who are at least 10 years younger than the existing members of the national team should be given just as much attention to helping propel Vietnam to the World Cup.