Vietnamese Football: When Youth Academies Choose the Wrong Development Focus

On an autumn afternoon in October 2026, at Lach Tray Stadium in Hai Phong, the national U15 final between PVF and Viettel unfolded under a pale late-autumn sun. I stood quietly in a corner of the stands, watching a small player wearing PVF's number 8, named Nguyen Gia Huy, standing only 1.55 meters tall. The boy completed 112 passes in 90 minutes, achieving a 94% accuracy rate, but did not score. PVF lost 0-1. When the final whistle blew, Viettel's head coach ran onto the pitch, shaking hands with each opposing player, and stopped for a long time beside Gia Huy. He said something, and the boy nodded, eyes red. I couldn't hear it, but later, when talking with a PVF assistant, I learned: the coach had told Gia Huy that he was the best player on the pitch, and if he wanted, Viettel was ready to take him. Gia Huy refused. He stayed at PVF, continued his role as a silent architect, and three years later, he became captain of PVF U18, leading the team to the national championship. But Gia Huy's story is not the only one. It is a piece in a larger picture of how Vietnamese youth football is shaping the future, and sometimes, shaping it wrong. The context of Vietnamese youth football in recent years has witnessed an explosion of academies and training centers. PVF, Viettel, HAGL, SHB Da Nang, and more recently private academies like Nutifood or CAND, all pour money into facilities, hire foreign experts, and organize large-scale tournaments. According to statistics from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), as of 2026, the country has more than 40 recognized youth football academies, three times the number in 2026. The number of well-trained young players has increased significantly, and youth national teams have achieved stable results at the regional level. However, behind these numbers lies a paradox: the more academies, the more young players trained, but the proportion of young players who actually contribute to professional clubs has not increased correspondingly. An internal VFF report in 2026 pointed out that only about 12% of graduates from youth academies can sign professional contracts, and of those, fewer than half can stay in V.League after three years. This figure is much lower than in developed football nations in the region such as Japan or South Korea, where the corresponding rates are 25% and 22%. What is happening? The answer lies in how academies choose their development focus. For many years, Vietnamese youth football has been obsessed with short-term results. Youth coaches are under pressure to win age-group tournaments, and that leads to a dangerous trend: prioritizing physique and physicality over individual technique. Tall, strong players with good dueling ability are often selected for the starting lineup, while smaller players with good tactical thinking and technique are pushed aside. I have witnessed this in many youth matches. At the 2026 national U17 tournament, a coach from a northern club bluntly told me: "At this age, physique is the deciding factor. Technique can be taught later, but height cannot." That is an alarming statement, because it reflects a common mindset: viewing youth football as a physique race, not a skill development process. What are the consequences of this mindset? Players like Nguyen Gia Huy, with modest height and an organizational playing style, are often undervalued. They may shine in youth tournaments thanks to their ability to read the game and pass accurately, but when they enter the professional environment, where physicality is emphasized, they struggle. A scout from a V.League club once shared with me: "We need players who can withstand impacts. A 1.65m midfielder will be exploited by big teams." This is true, but it ignores an important fact: modern football is not just about impacts. It is about space, time, and passes that break the opponent's structure. And small players, if trained properly, can become game-changers. Luka Modric, one of the best midfielders in history, is only 1.72m tall. Xavi Hernandez is 1.70m. Andres Iniesta is 1.71m. They didn't need to be tall to dominate the midfield. So why does Vietnamese youth football reject players like them? The answer lies in impatience. Developing a technical player takes time, while developing a physical player shows immediate results. A 1.80m, 75kg player can win duels and help the team win matches from U15 level. But at 20, when opponents have also developed physically, that player may no longer have an advantage. Meanwhile, a technical player, if patiently trained, will continue to develop and may reach peak at 25-27. This is a trade-off that many Vietnamese academies are getting wrong. I have watched hundreds of youth matches across Vietnam over the past nine years. From U11 tournaments in Hai Phong to U21 national finals in Pleiku, I have noticed a recurring pattern. Teams that win at young ages are often those with superior physique. But by U19 and U21, the physical gap narrows, and teams with better technical foundations begin to dominate. Unfortunately, many technical players have already been eliminated, never getting the chance to prove themselves at higher levels. A typical example is the case of Nguyen Van Toan, a winger for HAGL and the national team. Toan is 1.68m tall, not the ideal physical profile. But thanks to being trained in an environment that encourages technique, Toan has become one of the most dangerous attackers in V.League. Toan's speed and dribbling ability are things that tall defenders fear. If Toan had been trained in an academy that prioritized physique, would he have had a chance to develop? The answer is probably no. However, it cannot be denied that physicality is an important factor in modern football. International tournaments are increasingly harsh, and Vietnamese players often face disadvantages in stature when facing teams from Japan, South Korea, or Iran. The problem is not to ignore physicality, but to find a balance. Academies need to develop physicality in parallel with technique, rather than choosing one over the other. But in reality, this balance is very difficult to achieve when the pressure of results still weighs heavily on youth coaches. Another factor to consider is the role of coaches. In Vietnam, many youth coaches are former players, trained in an environment where physicality was emphasized. They pass that mindset on to the next generation, creating a difficult cycle to break. To change, there needs to be coaches properly trained in youth player development methods, who understand that technique and tactical thinking are the foundation of a sustainable player. Some academies like PVF or HAGL have begun to change, but the pace is still slow. In the context of the current transfer window, when V.League clubs are urgently looking for quality young players, this issue becomes even more urgent. Teams need players who can contribute immediately, but at the same time need to build a sustainable foundation. If academies continue to produce physically gifted but technically deficient players, they will only create temporary pieces, not long-term pillars. Conversely, if they are patient with technical players, they can create players who can change the course of a match for years. I had the opportunity to talk with a Japanese coach who worked at an academy in Vietnam. He told me: "You have very talented players, but you are too impatient. In Japan, it takes us ten years to train a player. In Vietnam, you want results after two years." That is a frank observation, and it points to a fatal weakness in Vietnam's youth training system. When the TV is muted, the match begins to say truer things. I have rewatched many recordings of youth matches, and what I noticed is that small players tend to move more intelligently, choose better positions, and make faster decisions. They compensate for their lack of physicality with thinking. But that thinking can only develop if given the opportunity. In a U17 match I followed, a 1.60m midfielder completed 15 through balls in 60 minutes, more than any other player on the pitch. But that boy was substituted in the 70th minute and never called up to the national youth team again. The reason? "Physicality does not meet requirements." I am not against having certain physical standards. But I am against making physicality the only criterion. Football is a sport of space and time, and players who can control space and time better are often technical players. They may not win duels, but they can avoid those duels by moving intelligently. They may not be the fastest runners, but they can run at the right time. These are qualities that cannot be measured with a tape measure or weight scale. Speed is the only thing that needs no explanation, but it is also the hardest to read. In youth football, speed is often simply understood as running speed. But true speed is ball-handling speed, decision-making speed, off-the-ball movement speed. A player may not be the fastest in a 100-meter sprint, but may be the fastest at reading situations and making decisions. That is the kind of speed that Vietnamese academies are ignoring. I dig deep beneath the bench, where anonymous bones wait for the day to shine. There are many players like Nguyen Gia Huy, who don't score, aren't praised, but are the ones who keep the rhythm of the match. They are silent architects, the ones who build the team's playing style. If academies continue to ignore them, Vietnamese football will continue to produce identical players: strong, fast, but lacking creativity. And we will remain stuck on the outskirts of continental football. Every contract is a layer of sediment; I sift every grain of sand to find gold. In the current transfer context, V.League clubs are spending money on quality foreign players, while young domestic players are still undervalued. This creates a paradox: academies train players, but the clubs themselves do not trust the academy products. They choose to buy foreign players instead of giving young players a chance. And when young players don't play, they can't develop, and the gap grows wider. On the bench, people don't see the match; they see fate. Young players sit there, waiting for a chance, while coaches choose established foreign players. They have no opportunity to prove themselves, and therefore, they never have an opportunity. It is a vicious cycle that Vietnamese football needs to break. In the silence of a season without spectators, I hear the sound of talents taking root. In the 2026 season, when the COVID-19 pandemic closed stadiums, I had the chance to watch many youth matches on screen. Without cheers, without pressure from the stands, I could focus on the smallest details: how a player moves off the ball, how he reacts after losing the ball, how he communicates with teammates. And I realized that technical players tend to communicate better, organize better, and stay calm in difficult moments. These are qualities that cannot be measured by physical tests. People call it luck; I call it the seventh layer of sediment that you have to dig for ten years to find. Developing a technical player takes time, patience, and an environment that encourages creativity. Vietnamese academies need to understand that success in youth tournaments is not the only measure of success. True success is when you produce players who can compete at the highest level, sustainably over many years. And that can only come from a solid technical foundation. In the context of Vietnamese football on the rise, with strong investment from businesses and public interest, this is the time to change mindsets. Academies need to be given more autonomy, coaches need to be retrained, and clubs need to trust young players. Otherwise, we will continue to see talents like Nguyen Gia Huy forgotten, and Vietnamese football will remain stagnant. When I left Lach Tray Stadium that afternoon, Gia Huy was still sitting in the stands, looking down at the pitch where Viettel players were celebrating victory. The boy was no longer crying. He just sat there, quietly, as if memorizing every detail. I don't know what he was thinking, but I know he won't give up. And I hope Vietnamese football won't give up on players like him either.