VietNamNet Bridge – The golden age of Vietnamese football players has passed. Even with football stars, the transfer value has also decreased dramatically.

Dinh Tung discounts himself to leave Hai Phong FC but he has not found a new destination yet. Photo: SGGP

It is highly possible that several bosses will stop investing in football in the next season. If that happens, the Vietnam Professional Football Company (VPF) will encounter difficulties in holding football tournaments. Meanwhile, the transfer value of players will surely go down to the lowest level because almost football teams complained of losses. They will not be so foolish to spend several hundred thousand dollars to buy a player for several years.

Timothy, who won the best scorer of V-League 2012, is at risk of unemployment when no team wants to get him. After his contract with Hanoi FC was liquidated, Timothy had reached an agreement with Ninh Binh FC but at the last minute, Ninh Binh did not sign the contract because the price of Timothy was too high.

After being refused by Ninh Binh, the Nigerian striker headed to the South to find opportunities at rich FCs like Binh Duong or Saigon Xuan Thanh. But Timothy asked for $150,000 of transfer fee per year, plus a monthly salary of $20,000 that these clubs could not afford.

Another star, Brazilian-origin striker Huynh Kesley demanded Saigon Xuan Thanh to pay $400,000 dollars of transfer fee for every season, plus monthly salary and bonus. In total, to have Kesley, this FC will have to pay about VND10 billion ($500,000) a year.

In the period of economic difficulties, the majority of FC are cutting their spending, but football stars still claim for high prices, signaling a season with many players who will be unemployed.

At this moment, many clubs still owe their players wages and bonuses and they ignore the purchase of new players or extending current contracts.

Many poor clubs like Kien Giang and Dong Thap are selling their players in order to have more funding to cover the activities of the team.

Not only poor teams, the rich ones also prove quite indifferent in buying new players or extending contracts. At the end of this season, Saigon Xuan Thanh will dismiss a series of former players, including Le Tostao, Dang Van Robert, Trong Binh and return Van Quyen to Song Lam Nghe An FC to reduce operation costs. Some northern club also started selling foreign players. Some players have sent words of seeking a new destination but they have not been welcomed by any team.

A star like Cong Vinh is also at the risk of unemployment if his team is dissolved after its boss – Nguyen Duc Kien was arrested. Paying ten billion dong to buy this striker is considered too much for clubs in the V-League. Hai Phong FC bought Dinh Tung at the price of VND9 billion ($450,000) but at present, if the "price" is only half of this number, no team should buy this player.

Some the players have tried to polish themselves but no FC is interested in.

Expert Tran Van Phuc, who has closely followed Vietnamese football for years, made a warning: "It is highly possible that investors can give up football. Investors start depressing because they spend hundreds of billions dong in football annually but the gross is almost nothing. Investors no longer keen to invest in football, meaning that the value of players will reduce a lot."

Former coach of Hai Phong and The Cong FCs, Vuong Tien Dung said that it's time for the player transfer market to return to the real values. Football investors’ race to recruit football stars before indirectly created billion-dong contracts. Now, if they are not interested in or sit together to reach agreement on the price, they will not have to run after stars as it once was.”

Prospect of a bleak season is waiting in front of players when at this moment, most FCs are frozen in purchasing.

Vietnamese football has chased the virtual value for too many years. When football investors themselves realize that they have invested too much, invested in a bluff in football, it is the time that Vietnam may have to postpone football tournaments.

Compiled by S. Tung